McCain was a Navy aviator who was shot down and captured by North Viet Nam and spend 6 years as their POW. During that time he was offered his freedom repeatedly if he would denounce the US and refused to do so.
To me, that took some guts, which he quickly lost once elected to Congress and became a traitor to the Republican party for voting to keep Obamacare instead of repealing it, and Democrats and the left-wing media praised and honored him for doing so. I held my nose and voted for him in '08 because I knew how much worse electing a gay Muslim socialist like Obama would be!