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 | | Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember (Modern Library Classics) by John McCain, Mark Salter ISBN-10: 9780812974454 ISBN-10: 0-8129-7445-X ISBN-13: 9780812974454 ISBN-13: 978-0-8129-7445-4 Paperback 2007-08-07 Random House Trade Paperbacks Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description In Character is Destiny, McCain tells the stories of celebrated historical figures and lesser-known heroes whose values exemplify the best of the human spirit. He illustrates these qualities with moving stories of triumph against the odds, righteousness in the face of iniquity, hope in adversity, and sacrifices for a cause greater than self-interest. The tributes he pays here to men and women who have lived truthfully will stir the hearts of young and old alike, and help prepare us for the hard work of choosing our destiny. From the Hardcover edition. | ||
Reviews | ||
Out of Touch I really went into this book with an open mind and was let down. McCain is out of touch. These stories are not his own, but are just a retelling of the good works of others. In his introduction he shows how out of touch he is by telling a story about how he and his family drove through a bad neighborhood in Mexico and that somehow taught him a lot about human nature. | ||
McCain Secrets Revealed For those who have questions about John McCain, this is a must read. It holds the reasons behind many of John McCain's otherwise inexplicable behavior. Many of his own political party, in this election cycle, have wondered why he refuses to attack Senator Obama for his associations with America bashing Jeremiah Wright. The answer is found in the chapter on the Native American Chief Tecumseh. The book says much about John McCain, the senator and Navy Captain. I highly recommend it. | ||
There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is - deceit. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is - deceit, August 17, 2008 By Xuan Loc 1967-69 - See all my reviews Character is Destiny McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain's three eldest children. And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain's first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965. She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam's infamous `Hanoi Hilton' prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news. But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries. When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self. Today, she stands at just 5ft4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering. For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later. Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. `I have no bitterness,'she says. `My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn't the reason for my divorce. `My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.' Some of McCain's acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to `play the field'. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons. McCain was then earning little more than £25,000 a year as a naval officer, while his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections. He first met Carol in the Fifties while he was at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. He was a privileged, but rebellious scion of one of America's most distinguished military dynasties - his father and grandfather were both admirals. But setting out to have a good time, the young McCain hung out with a group of young officers who called themselves the `Bad Bunch'. His primary interest was women and his conquests ranged from a knife-wielding floozy nicknamed `Marie, the Flame of Florida' to a tobacco heiress. Carol fell into his fast-living world by accident. She escaped a poor upbringing in Philadelphia to become a successful model, married an Annapolis classmate of McCain's and had two children - Douglas and Andrew - before renewing what one acquaintance calls `an old flirtation' with McCain. (EDITOR'S NOTE: MCCAIN: Character is Destiny!! It seems clear she was bowled over by McCain's attention at a time when he was becoming bored with his playboy lifestyle. `He was 28 and ready to settle down and he loved Carol's children,' recalled another Annapolis graduate, Robert Timberg, who wrote The Nightingale's Song, a bestselling biography of McCain and four other graduates of the academy. The couple married and McCain adopted Carol's sons. Their daughter, Sidney, was born a year later, but domesticity was clearly beginning to bore McCain - the couple were regarded as `fixtures on the party circuit' before McCain requested combat duty in Vietnam at the end of 1966. When McCain - his hair turned prematurely white and his body reduced to little more than a skeleton - was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again. But friends say privately he was `appalled' by the change in her appearance. At first, though, he was kind, assuring her: `I don't look so good myself. It's fine.' `I thought, of course, we would live happily ever after,' says Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles. But already the McCains' marriage had begun to fray. `John started carousing and running around with women,' said Robert Timberg. McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details. Some friends blame his dissatisfaction with Carol, but others give some credence to her theory of a mid-life crisis. He was also fiercely ambitious, but it was clear he would never become an admiral like his illustrious father and grandfather and his thoughts were turning to politics. In 1979 - while still married to Carol - he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Carol and her children were devastated. `It was a complete surprise,' says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide. `They never displayed any difficulties between themselves. I know the Reagans were quite shocked because they loved and respected both Carol and John.' Another friend added: `Carol didn't fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through. She used to say, "He just wants to make up for lost time."' Indeed, to many in their circle the saddest part of the break-up was Carol's decision to resign herself to losing a man she says she still adores. Friends confirm she has remained friends with McCain and backed him in all his campaigns. `He was very generous to her in the divorce but of course he could afford to be, since he was marrying Cindy,' one observed. McCain transferred the Florida beach house to Carol and gave her the right to live in their jointly-owned townhouse in the Washington suburb of Alexandria. He also agreed to pay her alimony and child support. A former neighbour says she subsequently sold up in Florida and Washington and moved in 2003 to Virginia Beach. He said: `My impression was that she found the new place easier to manage as she still has some difficulties walking.' Meanwhile McCain moved to Arizona with his new bride immediately after their 1980 marriage. There, his new father-in-law gave him a job and introduced him to local businessmen and political powerbrokers who would smooth his passage to Washington via the House of Representatives and Senate. And yet despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won't forget his treatment of his first wife. Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans' rights, said: `I have been following John McCain's career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is - deceit. `When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. `Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better. EDITOR'S NOTE: Character is Destiny!! `This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.' EDITOR'S NOTE: Character is Destiny!! One old friend of the McCains said: `Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that's a defense mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.' EDITOR'S NOTE: Cindy's Daddy's money. Just imagine the agreement his lawyers would have prepared to keep Carol quiet for the rest of her life. Character is Destiny!! Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain's political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her. Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. `He's a good guy,' she assured us. `We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.' But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel - even by the standards of modern politics. `McCain is the classic opportunist. He's always reaching for attention and glory,' he said. `After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.' EDITOR'S NOTE: Character is Destiny!! | ||
Excellent Book On Character John McCain's book is well written and provides individualized examples of people who exemplify the important characteristics he's written about including: honesty(Thomas More),loyalty (Sir Ernest Shackleton)- who also could have easily been chosen as a model of leadership also,citizenship(Pat Tillman),cooperation(John Wooden),generosity(Osceola McCarty) - a truly inspiring story, and many others. This is a great book for anyone, particularly for younger people who are forming their characters. It would also make an excellent gift book. I've given it to a few people already. This is not a political book. It's simply a super compendium of character. It's for anyone. It is disturbing to note some of the "argumentum ad hominem" directed against McCain in the review comments, which may be suitable to a political forum, but seem inappropriate in this one. It would be a shame for that to keep someone from buying this very worthwhile book. McCain probably won't get my vote for President, but he surely has it for this book. | ||
Suprisingly Interesting Long car ride. 4 kids. Hey, let's torture the kids with John McCain... we packed along the iPods and gadgets, and figured WE (the adults) would listen to this while the kids ignored it. We popped in the first disc of the audio CD. After about 5 minutes, I thought, "there's just no way I can listen to this through the whole state of Utah!" McCain's voice is pretty monotone. Enough to put someone to sleep. Except, that after a little while, I realized I was listening to what Senator McCain was SAYING, listening to the story. The stories contained are very interesting. Eventually, my 7yr old son and 10 yr old daughter were engrossed in these stories. I also have a stronger opinion of Senator McCain after some of his musings. When he spoke of Pat Tillman, McCain says, "I wish I had known him. I wish I had known him all of his life." There were many comments like this that made you sure that Senator McCain really gave a hoot about the subjects of his stories. Whether you are a Republican, or other -- this is quite a read/listen. it you have any emotions, you will probably cry at times. You will cringe and feel for these heroes. BUY THIS! You won't be disappointed. | ||