By the accounts of those there with him, he served honorably, even heroically while he was captive.
That makes up for a whole lot of arrogance and whatever ineptitude he had in getting there.
Look, I do not think McCain is a good conservative candidate. Quite the contrary. it is a shame and disgusting that we are left with the options we have...but I have looked into his military record, and done so with a skeptical eye and I will not try and discount him over it. He served, he was injured, wounded, tortured and imprisoned for that service.
...and despite my severe misgivings about quite a few critical conservative issues he has betrayed his base on, yet he does hold some conservative issues that we can maintain during his administration. Compared to Obama, with McCain's military background, his commitment to the war against Islamic Jihad, his pro-life position (such as it is), there is really no comparison to the absolute marxist that Obama is.
I strongly dislike the man as well.
But his election is more important than my dislike of The Maverick.
This type of stuff really tweaks the MeCainiacs and that's just plain fun.