HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT

A long goodbye. Starting on Wednesday, McCain’s funeral will take the statesman through Arizona, where he will lie in state at the capitol in Phoenix, followed the next day by a motorcade and eulogy by former Vice President Joe Biden. On Friday, he will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol rotunda before another procession on Saturday past the Vietnam War Memorial to the National Cathedral, where former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will speak. On Sunday, he will be buried at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Absent from the memorial services — reportedly per McCain’s wish — will be Trump, although Vice President Mike Pence and a number of officials from the administration will attend.

Belated respects. McCain’s war record lent gravitas to his opposition to torture, of which he was a victim while imprisoned in Vietnam. And yet Trump, who once said of McCain, “He’s a war hero because he was captured,“ continues to enjoy support from some of the same people who normally hold the military as sacred. The White House flag was lowered to half-staff as is traditional for a member of Congress, but was swiftly raised and then lowered again after veterans groups implored the president, who issued a belated statement of “respect” for McCain Monday, to do so.

A hero with ‘asterisks.’ While McCain’s reputation as a “straight talker” loomed large, some are pushing past the hagiography to point out mistakes McCain himself had acknowledged — and some he had not. He was implicated with other members of the Keating Five, legislators who lobbied in the late 1980s to take regulatory pressure off of a campaign contributor knee-deep in the savings and loan crisis. Though cleared by the Senate Ethics Committee, McCain called it an “asterisk” on his career. And while he’s been regarded as a bulwark against hard-right populism, he’s also blamed for breathing life into it by making Tea Party luminary Sarah Palin his 2008 running mate.

Even in death, a fearsome adversary. Some of McCain’s worst detractors won’t even acknowledge his death. Conspiracy theories are popping up about how his death was faked — some say to disrupt the Senate candidacies of Trump supporters in Arizona. It’s something that might have amused McCain, who once said he enjoyed debunking “propaganda and crackpot conspiracy theories.”

WHAT TO READ

John McCain’s Final Letter to America, by Sen. John McCain in The Atlantic
"We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe."

The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shrub: Seven Days in the Life of the Late, Great John McCain, by David Foster Wallace in Rolling Stone
"Sometimes he’ll wink at you for no reason. If all that doesn’t sound like a big deal, you have to remember that these pro reporters have to spend a lot of time around politicians, and most politicians are painful to be around."

WHAT TO WATCH

John McCain: Remembering a Maverick "This was the kind of moment that John McCain lives for. He is going to be the deciding vote and he’s got control over a major piece of legislation in his hand."	Watch on The New York Times
The Contenders, 16 for ’16: Inside John McCain’s Presidential Runs "Occasionally someone comes to me and says, ‘Senator McCain, why don’t you get back in there? We need you.’ And I am reminded of the great Southern philosopher who once said, ‘There’s no education in the second kick of a mule."	Watch on OZY