McCain Documentary

I met Joe McCain, the brother of Senator John McCain, while working at a production company in Alexandria, VA. The company had produced a timeline website for Senator John McCain’s campaign. Joe, who was actively campaigning for his brother, called himself "The Discount John McCain" due to their striking resemblance.

While working at the production company, I enrolled in a documentary class at "Docs In Progress" and decided to do a documentary about Joe. I called it “Joe, The Brother.” We conducted our first interview a few weeks before the election. At that time it was unknown if Joe's brother would become the Leader of the Free World.

After I finished editing the documentary, Joe invited me to the Naval Academy in Annapolis for his nephew’s graduation. It was the fourth generation of a John Sydney McCain to graduate from the Academy. Recently elected President Barack Obama would be giving the commencement speech.

After the graduation, we headed to a local Inn for a luncheon with the McCain family. I made my way to Roberta McCain, the 97-year-old monarch of the family. I had met Roberta during my filming of Joe’s documentary and was in awe of her. She had appeared on the Jay Leno show the night before.

Senator McCain entered the room and walked directly to me with his hand outstretched, “John McCain.” I introduced myself and congratulated on him on his son’s graduation. Joe later introduced me again to John while we were all fixing our plates of food from the buffet of crab cakes, asparagus, and soufflé. Joe said that I worked for the production company that created his campaign website. John retorted, “That’s why we lost the election.” Laughter broke around the room. I smiled and said, “I’ll take the blame for it.” Senator McCain smiled and winked at me.