“He was all he was, all of the time”

Of all the tributes to John McCain this week, his longtime speechwriter’s may be the most mellifluous. “He was restless and enthusiastic, quick and quick-tempered,” Mark Salter wrote in The Washington Post. “He could be impetuous and cantankerous. He was defiant in defeat, and sometimes in victory, too. He didn’t have sides, his mother said, meaning different faces for different occasions. He was all he was, all of the time.”