Sen. John McCain dead at 81

WASHINGTON

Staff/wire report

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the war hero who became the GOP’s standard-bearer in the 2008 election, has died. He was 81.

His office says McCain died Saturday. He had battled brain cancer.

In 1967, his plane was shot down on a bombing mission over North Vietnam. He was severely injured and spent more than five years as a prisoner of war, enduring torture in the most notorious camp during the Vietnam War known as the Hanoi Hilton.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and the Senate in 1986. A conservative on most issues, he pushed for campaign finance reform and the effort to account for those missing in Vietnam, and was well respected on both sides of the aisle.

He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, then won it in 2008. But he and running mate Sarah Palin lost to Barack Obama.

McCain's family announced just a day ago he had decided to discontinue medical treatment for his aggressive brain cancer, which he had been battling over the last year.