Top 75 McCain Quotes

In choosing Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has chosen for the future.

I don’t go tanning anymore because Obama put a 10 percent tax on tanning. McCain would never put a 10 percent tax on tanning. Because he’s pale and would probably want to be tan.

You have a person there in Senator McCain that has an integrity in him and will stand up for the political process.

I like John McCain, or he seems like a cool guy in a lot of ways. I don’t agree with a lot of his policies, but he still seems like a cool guy.

Just hear Senator McCain speak. He may not give you the answer you are looking for, he may not be in agreement with you on a stance or an issue, but the man is honest to a fault.

I have known John McCain personally since 1982. I wrote a well-received speech for him.

I used to like John McCain, too, but I must admit that was because he was bucking his party to do things I agreed with. I would not have had that reaction if, say, Bernie Sanders decided to rebel out of principle and support privatizing Social Security.

John McCain has not been president of the United States. He ran. He ran a spirited campaign. We lost. I hated to see us lose, but there were a lot of things working against us.

I am uncomfortable with Sarah Palin. I have nothing against her. I’ll say she’s a very talented woman. Yet I think she owes John McCain her gratitude and loyalty.

McCain is significant in the sense that he has no significance at all on any subject.

When I’m 100 years old, if I make it that long, when I die, probably the first tag line will be John McCain’s daughter, and I’m so proud of him and proud of my family’s legacy and our life, so I don’t have a problem with it.

McCain is completely against the sequester. It was one thing when we had a Democratic chair who was against it – all the Democrats were against it. But to have a Republican chair who is outspoken and strong against the sequester, who has the credentials in military issues – who is going to challenge him?

Economic conservatives like immigration reform, and in fact, many of them supported the bill that John McCain and I put together in the Senate.

When I interviewed John McCain in 2000 about whether he had taken medication for his anger, I remember thinking, ‘Let’s see how this is going to work.’

Perhaps the right to authenticity and the reverence of authenticity should be reserved for people like John McCain. John McCain who at his most authentic chose to stay and face years of torture rather than leave before his brothers.

Cindy McCain has emerged as a definite hottie. I think that sometimes happens to women in their early fifties.

Romney, like Sen. John McCain and Bob Dole before him, were meant to mollify moderates, attract Independents, and ‘rebrand’ the party in a way that mostly fits the ideal of media types who would never vote Republican anyhow. Each of them lost.

I think liberals would love to see the conservative party be more moderate, more middle of the road. I mean, my gosh, what do you call John McCain? Some would argue, what do you call Mitt Romney?

McCain I’d vote against under any circumstance.

I have had enough of the sexist treatment of Sarah Palin… I call upon the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower who will wilt at any moment.

As an American Jew who loves Israel, I cannot support John McCain. He cannot provide what Israel needs most – a respected, credible, morally strong America.

In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change.

John McCain… looks like a fraud to me.

McCain needs Hillary to run because that’s what keeps the Republican coalition together. She helps unite the Republican base.

Obama’s middle name differs from my last name by only two vowels. Does the McCain-Palin campaign view me as a pariah, too? Do McCain and Palin think there’s something wrong with my name?

If both John McCain and Obama were given a sip of truth serum, both would admit they made serious mistakes in choosing running mates in 2008.

In 2013 and 2014, I traveled to Ukraine three times with Senator John McCain.

I’m an emotional woman when it comes to service to our country. I watched many people’s children leave and go serve. This is something that is the fiber of the McCain family. It was nothing more than me just saying I believe in this country so strongly.

I voted for McCain. But I thought Obama ran the best campaign I have ever known – disciplined, well organized, very, very good. I was very impressed.

I don’t know a single Republican in Montana who would get in a fight in a bowling alley for John McCain.

Really, what’s not to love in John McCain, satire-wise? As if he had not already been good enough to us, then came his nomination of Sarah Palin. Here, truly, was a gift from the gods of satire.

It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Sen. McCain on important economic issues facing the country. That kind of distraction hurts not only Sen. McCain’s ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country’s problems; it hurts the country.

Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for President in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions.

The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold.

John McCain has become the de facto running mate of George W. Bush.

To bolster his right flank and attract women voters, John McCain had cynically opted for a running mate who was, by any stretch of the imagination, unqualified for a position a heartbeat away from the presidency.

As someone who cares about human rights, I am deeply dismayed to learn that Mr. McCain’s charity has accepted money from Saudi Arabia. Their track record of oppressing women, gays, Christians, and political opponents is notoriously horrific.

John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is the towering example of his poor judgment. Palin’s ignorance of public affairs is monumental.

I admired the way McCain worked on campaign finance reform. I admired the way Nancy Pelosi stiffened the Democrats’ spine during the health care debate. I admire the way Barack Obama has raised a dog in the White House without ever putting it on the roof of the car for a vacation drive.

If someone busted into your house and robbed you, would you then forgive them if you found out they were a veteran? Of course not. So why are we forgiving McCain for selling out his country by supporting the Bush agenda?

I don’t know Gov. Palin. I’ve certainly seen her, since she came on the scene, you know, running with John McCain.

I think of John McCain as a conservative, but he is clearly not the same kind of ‘conservative’ as, say, Rand Paul. The word is close to losing almost all meaning.

For a while under Donald Trump, it was possible to believe that we could go back to a more functional, less rancorous time. This desire was expressed most eloquently at John McCain’s funeral services.

Sarah Palin lacked the preparation or temperament to be one heartbeat away from the presidency, but what she possessed in abundance was the ability to inflame political passions and energize the John McCain campaign with star quality.

Far be it from me to denigrate Senator McCain’s advice on vice presidential nominees.

Any concerns that Romney will adopt McCain’s milquetoast campaign model are quickly diminishing.

McCain is the kid who was really cool in middle school but never got high school game and people are sick of him acting like he’s still popular.

Remember, the first presidential candidate to reject public financing for both the primary and general election was… Barack Obama, in 2008. He did it, in spite of a flat pledge to the contrary, because his campaign saw that it could vastly outspend John McCain.

John McCain felt very strongly about virtually every issue that he tackled, but it was never based in partisanship. He didn’t try to score partisan points as he worked on issues. He would work with anyone who wanted to accomplish the goal that he shared.

Whether McCain actively sought Palin in 2008 or passively yielded to aides’ pressure, he set a new standard for GOP candidates who rely on lots of sizzle and little substance.

In 2008, Senator John McCain forbid his staff from using an ad that referred to his opponent Barack Obama’s inflammatory former pastor Jeremiah Wright or from raising that issue in any other way. He believed it was a sneaky way to use Obama’s race against him.

Presidents seem to fall into two positive categories: they’re one of us, or they’re heroes. Both McCain and Obama probably see themselves as potential heroes – presidents who will be looked up to, not presidents everyday people will remark are ‘just like me.’

Just as some Republicans despise John McCain for calling out Donald Trump, some Democrats could never accept him unless he became one of us. And he wasn’t: he voted with the NRA; supported the Iraq War; elevated Sarah Palin.