John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, an extraordinary comeback for a candidate whose White House hopes were dashed eight years ago.

JOHN MCCAIN secured the Republican presidential nomination as the ultimate survivor — winning it eight years after his first failed attempt.

McCain carries with him the scars of battle in both armed conflict as a naval pilot and in the political wars of Washington as a U.S. senator from Arizona.

The 71-year-old McCain would be the oldest American ever elected to a first presidential term if he is able to defeat the Democrats’ choice in the November election. He is also a cancer survivor, having undergone surgery for two malignant melanomas in 2000.

Polls initially put him in a strong position to compete against either Democrat Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

On the campaign trail, he often travels with his wife, Cindy, and has a repertoire of old jokes that he tells repeatedly, such as, it is so dry in Arizona that the trees chase the dogs.

Or there was one about the man who came up to him and said: “’Did anybody ever tell you, you look like Senator John McCain?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Doesn’t that make you mad as heck?’”

A hawk on military matters, McCain served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee when Republicans held control of the Senate in recent years and is now a ranking member for the minority party.

Sometimes known by his colleagues as “Senator Hothead,” McCain can be quick to lose his temper, which is what happened last May when he and Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn quarreled over the details of proposals to deal with illegal immigration.

“(Expletive) you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” McCain was said to have told Cornyn.

From his senate seat McCain has been a strong advocate of maintaining U.S. troops in Iraq, and staked his political career on a successful outcome in the unpopular war.

“I’d rather lose an election than lose a war,” he said.

At the same time, he has been a frequent critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy, blaming former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for a botched war plan.

His positions on the war and in favor of a plan to give millions of illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship nearly killed off his campaign last summer.

On political life support, McCain shed staff and concentrated exclusively on winning New Hampshire. A victory in that state gave him the momentum to outlast several better-funded rivals.

His comeback was aided by a friendly relationship with the news media fostered by lengthy sessions aboard his “Straight Talk Express” bus. Reporters found out tidbits like McCain is deeply superstitious and carries a lucky penny in his pocket.

McCain has often been at odds with President George W. Bush, particularly on his insistence that Americans not engage in torture against those arrested in the U.S.-led war against Islamic extremism.

He came to that position the hard way — after being tortured himself while spending five years of the Vietnam War as a prisoner in the “Hanoi Hilton.”

McCain was born on a U.S. military base in Panama. Both his father and grandfather were celebrated navy admirals — the latter commanded the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet in the Pacific during World War II — and there was never much doubt that he would follow in their footsteps.

McCain spent his childhood bouncing from one naval base to another with his family before enrolling at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

He was a lacklustre student with a rebellious streak that often landed him in trouble. He also led a colorful social life, including a period dating a Brazilian exotic dancer.

After graduating fifth from bottom of his class, McCain opted to become a naval airman. He survived a crash into the Gulf of Mexico while training in Texas — the first of several near-death experiences over the course of his flying career.

McCain’s first brush with momentous international events came when he took part in the U.S. naval blockade of Cuba during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

By 1967, McCain was a veteran pilot aboard the USS Forrestal aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam.

He was preparing to take off on a bombing run over North Vietnam when disaster struck. A missile accidentally fired from another plane, hitting the fuel tanks on McCain’s aircraft and triggering explosions and fire.

McCain escaped from his plane by crawling onto the nose of the aircraft. Explosions killed 134 and injured hundreds. It was the worst non-combat-related accident in U.S. naval history.

Three months later McCain was on a bombing mission over Hanoi. A missile struck his plane, shearing off the right wing.

He parachuted into a lake with a broken arm and leg and nearly drowned before locals saved him. The next five years were spent as a prisoner of war — including two years in solitary confinement and periods of torture.

As the son of a senior U.S. commander, his capture was front-page news in the United States.

The North Vietnamese offered to release him but McCain refused to leave before prisoners who had been there longer. He was freed after the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 and was greeted in the United States as a hero.

Videotape of his POW ordeal still exists, and in fact has provided his campaign some valuable evidence of his life to use to flesh out his image.

After a period of recuperation he became a navy squadron commander and later the chief navy liaison officer to the Senate. This latter position gave him a taste for politics and, after settling in Arizona with his second wife, Cindy, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and the Senate five years later.

His Senate career got off to a rocky start when he became embroiled in an ethics scandal surrounding a bankrupt financial company he had lobbied for. McCain admitted an error of judgment and has since earned a reputation for campaigning against government corruption and waste.

He ran for president in 2000 but narrowly lost the Republican nomination to George W. Bush. Ill-feeling between McCain and Bush lingered for years and there was speculation that he would join the Democratic presidential ticket as John Kerry’s running mate in 2004.

The rumors proved unfounded and McCain later became a staunch supporter of two controversial Bush administration policies — the troop “surge” in Iraq and reform of U.S. immigration laws.

McCain’s campaign rests on two main pillars: his support for the war on terror and his promise to tackle wasteful government spending. McCain has vowed to stay on the offensive against terrorists, describing Islamic extremism as an “existential” threat to U.S. civilization.

His support for offering illegal immigrants a path to citizenship has alienated many conservatives — prompting him to put greater emphasis on the need for tighter border security.

On social issues, he has sought to shed his moderate image and woo Christian conservatives by stressing his longstanding opposition to abortion.

McCain has seven children from two marriages, including an adopted daughter from a Bangladeshi orphanage.

(SD-Agencies)