By Associated Press, 11/27/99

James B. Stockdale, the highest-ranking prisoner of war in Vietnam and later a Reform Party vice presidential candidate, says John McCain is ''solid as a rock'' and the harsh treatment he endured as a prisoner of war made him mentally stronger and more stable. Stockdale said he was not surprised by assertions that the Republican presidential contender's flashes of temper are a sign he was psychologically affected by his POW experiences and may not be fit for the White House. Stockdale dismissed the idea. ''The military psychiatrists who periodically examine former prisoners of war have found that the more resistant a man was to harsh treatment, the more emotionally stable he is likely to become later in life,'' Stockdale wrote yesterday in The New York Times. (AP)