title: Hard Call
text: # Hard Call
  
  Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them is a book written by United States Senator John McCain with Mark Salter. Its theme is decision-making based on personal principles. The hardcover edition was released August 14, 2007, and the paperback edition was subsequently released on February 29, 2008.
  
  McCain outlines a six-part structure for "hard calls," with several detailed anecdotes illustrating each of the six parts:
  
  * Awareness: Jackie Robinson "intruding" into all-white baseball; and Wernher von Braun, the rocket scientist.
  * Foresight: Winston Churchill; Alexander Graham Bell; and Ronald Reagan when standing up to the Soviet Union.
  * Timing: Boeing's production of the commercial jet aircraft; Gillette's invention of the disposable razor; and Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin meeting for the peace process.
  * Confidence: Civil War General George B. McClellan; Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel; and the Apollo 11 astronauts.
  * Humility: The founding of Liberia; Harry Truman; and Gerald Ford's pardoning of Richard Nixon.
  * Inspiration: The white commander of America's first black regiment; Alexander Solzhenitsyn; and Abraham Lincoln.
  