In fact, McCain has spent the majority of his life living with the physical disabilities and the mental trauma he suffered as a young Navy pilot. When his plane was shot down over Hanoi in 1967, McCain broke both his arms and his right leg at the knee. He was stabbed twice by a bayonet, had his shoulder smashed by a rifle butt and endured the angry kicks and punches of the mob that discovered him. Those injuries, along with the more calculated torture that followed during 5½ years of captivity, left him unable to raise either arm more than 80 degrees. Depending on the weather, his right knee aches, causing a visible limp.

After his release from Vietnam, McCain was evaluated for years by Navy psychiatrists and deemed on the whole to be coping well with the horrors of his captivity, which included malnourishment, regular beatings and two suicide attempts. Doctors determined that he had an "overdeveloped superego" and an "unrealistically high" need for achievement, two characteristics that have put him in the mainstream of presidential candidates.