John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is an American Republican Party politician, and the current President of the United States of America. He was defeated by Democrat candidate John F. Kennedy, Jr. on the 2012 elections. He won the 2008 elections against then-president, and Democrat candidate John Kerry, and assumed office in early 2009. Although he brought back the conservative politics of the 1990s and early-2000s, McCain continued Kerry's "good relations" policy with the Soviet Union, and President Lamar Alexander's less strict right-wing politics.