survive until after the AZ primary ? why ? He wasn’t in a primary. He was safe til 2020.
He was trying to hang on through the AZ primary to see what the outcome was on Gov. Doug Ducey’s (R) primary challenge. I’m not an expert on political strategy but, from what I’ve read from others who are, McCain had a commitment from Ducey to appoint a “placeholder” of McCain’s choosing to serve out the remainder of his term. If Ducey runs weak in his primary and there was a threat that he could lose in the general, McCain would have likely retired so that Ducey could appoint McCain’s choice right after the Primary. Presumably, if Ducey runs strong and appeared a dead cert for re-election, McCain could just go about the business of dying in office, believing that Ducey would fulfill his promise to appoint McCain’s choice when that happened. As it turned out, McCain’s death before the primary assures that this is exactly what will happen. Power and control-freak that he was, I don’t think he trusted Ducey to appoint Cindy or Meaghan McCain after his death. He wanted to stay alive and make Ducey look him in the eye if he was going to do a double-cross. JMHO - like I said, I’m no expert on political power plays down in the Swamp or how an egomaniac, like McCain, schemes. This narrative, however, seemed legit to me.
As it turns out, we may have been better off that McCain selfishly refused to retire at his 80+ age, and ran for another term. If he had retired, we might have gotten stuck with a Jeff Flake/McCain clone, and had to live with that until 2022. Now we have a chance to get someone, even if not MAGA, at least not a Flake or McCain. Of course, we’ll have to see who the Gov appoints, but he wants to be reelected, so I doubt it will be a McCain type.