McCain faces up to second presidential defeat

Instead, the former Vietnam prisoner of war, who staged a remarkable comeback to be named as the Republican presidential nominee, will return to Washington and the US Senate.

Mr McCain conceded the election with his wife Cindy and running mate Sarah Palin at his side in Phoenix, Arizona.

“We have come to the end of a long journey,” he said. “The American people have spoken and they have spoken clearly.”

During the closing days of his campaign, Mr McCain told a crowd in Miami, Florida: “I have fought for you most of my life, and in places where defeat meant more than returning to the Senate.

“There are other ways to love this country, but I’ve never been the kind to back down when the stakes are high.”

But his ultimate undoing was the fact that the story of John McCain known and respected in the Senate – an indisputable American hero, an experienced leader and a maverick willing to cross party lines – became diluted in the closing months of his campaign.

Instead, a series of confusing messages emerged as he moved from crisis to crisis, changing tactics and storylines along the way, leaving the American public with little grasp of what he stood for, despite several decades in the public eye.

He often seemed angry and awkward on the campaign trail, a significant problem when faced with one of the most accomplished orators in modern history.

And the two central figures in Mr McCain’s presidential bid – Mrs Palin and “real” American “Joe the Plumber” – went from being hailed as heroes to being ridiculed on the national stage.

Mrs Palin electrified the Republican national convention and won Mr McCain the support of the party’s conservative base with her devout Christianity and pro-life views.

But her selection raised serious concerns over his judgment as he had put a virtual unknown within a heartbeat of the presidency, despite his age and history of skin cancer, and she made a series of disastrous TV interviews which led to severe criticism, even from conservatives. And eventually campaign in-fighting became very public.

And Joe the Plumber, aka Joe Wurzelbacher from Holland, Ohio, criticised rival Barack Obama’s tax plan and was held up by the Republican as an icon of hard-working America – despite several analyses showing he may be better off under Mr Obama’s tax plan than under Mr McCain’s.

But when “Joe” took to the campaign trail and started criticising the Democrat over Israel, despite telling reporters that, on foreign policy, he knew “just enough to kind of be dangerous”, many US political pundits agreed with a Fox News commentator who said: “Man, it just gets frightening sometimes.”

The issues in the 2008 election were also not those Mr McCain would have chosen.

Mr McCain, who is widely seen as a foreign policy expert, admitted the economy was not his strongest subject and said its fundamentals were sound just days before a financial crisis engulfed the nation, the world and his campaign.

He contributed little to an emergency White House meeting called by President George Bush and many US politicians criticised his interference as ineffective.

He also had to deal with the baggage of one of the most unpopular Republican presidents in history and his rivals wasted no time in tying Mr McCain to George Bush strongly and frequently.

He tried to manage the role of the incumbent president, keeping him off the campaign trail, but millions of Americans were repeatedly told that a McCain administration would mean four more years of Mr Bush’s failed policies which have damaged the nation’s reputation.

But the fact that Mr McCain was even in the race until the end was the result of a remarkable and improbable comeback after weeks of poor fundraising, significant staff departures, and falling poll numbers threatened to derail his campaign last summer.

At the time, he told reporters: “This is a day at the beach compared to some days I have had in my life.”

And this is undoubtedly true. He spent five-and-a-half years in a prisoner of war camp in Vietnam, refusing to be released until those captured before him were set free – in line with US policy.

He was on his 23rd bombing mission on October 26, 1967, when his plane was hit by a surface-to-air missile over Hanoi, north Vietnam.

He ejected, was knocked unconscious and broke both arms and his right knee.

Captured, he had his shoulder broken by a rifle butt and was bayoneted in the ankle and groin before it was revealed he was an admiral’s son.

Nicknamed the “Crown Prince” by his captors, he received limited treatment for his injuries but was also tortured and beaten until he was near death on several occasions.

Today, he may shuffle slightly or hold his arms stiffly, is unable to raise his arms above his head and often requires assistance with brushing his hair or donning a jacket – all as a result of his half-decade as a PoW.

But this often led to him looking awkward on the campaign trail, and the temper-prone Republican could not keep his facial expressions in check during the presidential debates.

On August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone, John Sidney McCain III was born into an illustrious military family.

Both his father, who led the Pacific forces in Vietnam, and his grandfather, who commanded aircraft carriers in the Second World War, were four-star admirals in the US Navy.

He married Philadelphia model Carol Shepp in 1965 after meeting her while training as a pilot in Pensacola, Florida, and adopted her two sons, Doug and Andy.

The following year the couple had a daughter, Sidney, and in January 1967, Mr McCain was promoted to lieutenant commander and within a few months was on his way to Vietnam.

Following his long physical rehabilitation after being freed from the Hoa Lo prisoner of war camp, dubbed the Hanoi Hilton, in 1973, Mr McCain was a changed man – raring to go after what he saw as a wasted six years of his life.

He continued in the navy but his marriage ran into difficulties. Mr McCain engaged in infidelities and eventually divorced Carol a month before marrying Cindy Hensley, of Phoenix – nearly 20 years his junior – in May 1980. They have four children, Meghan, Jack, Jimmy and Bridget.

He retired from the navy the following year and moved to his wife’s home state of Arizona, where he began his political career.

In 2000 Mr McCain lost his bid for the Republican nomination in presidential election to George Bush.

One of his biggest mistakes, by his own admission, was his involvement as the only Republican in the Keating Five scandal – five senators who helped Arizona banking executive Charles Keating in his bid to keep federal regulators from taking action against him for questionable business practices.

The Senate ethics committee found Mr McCain broke no laws, but he acknowledged bad judgement.