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McCain Had a '60s Radical Friend of His Own

Made friends with ex-Vietnam protestor

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 18, 2008 1:48 PM CDT

(Newser) – John McCain has been busily exploiting and distorting Barack Obama’s passing relationship with '60s radical Bill Ayers, but McCain himself had a much closer relationship with another '60s radical, David Ifshin, writes Joe Klein of Time. Ifshin was an anti-Vietnam radical whom many people accused of treason after he flew to Hanoi and denounced US pilots as “war criminals.”

In 1984 McCain gave a speech demonizing Ifshin—then a top adviser for Walter Mondale—but regretted it because, he told Klein, “I didn’t know the guy.” He later met Ifshin, and apologized, and the two forged a lasting friendship. McCain even spoke at his funeral, saying, “David taught me a lot about the meaning of courage.”

John McCain speaks at a rally at Cabarrus Arena & Event Center in Concord, NC, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008.
John McCain speaks at a rally at Cabarrus Arena & Event Center in Concord, NC, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
John McCain signs an autograph at a rally at Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne, Fla., Friday, Oct. 17, 2008.
John McCain signs an autograph at a rally at Maxwell C. King Center for the Performing Arts in Melbourne, Fla., Friday, Oct. 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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If you want to know why I held John McCain in such high regard for so long, it had a lot to do with David Ifshin. And if you want to know why my opinion of him has plummeted, it has something to do with William Ayers. - Joe Klein

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