Cindy who? Mrs. McCain awaits an introduction
Dante Chinni
Posted: 06.25.2008 / 9:57 AM EDT
As the news media have turned their focus to the potential first ladies, a repeating story thread has emerged about Michelle Obama. She has been cast as “opinionated” or “outspoken” or “assertive,” as the press assesses whether she helps or hurts Sen. Barack Obama in his quest for the White House.
It is a complex calculus, particularly when viewed through our community types, as we discussed on this site last week.
The impact of Sen. John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain, on his campaign appears to be less complicated for now, in that she has been a nonissue. Her best-known statements thus far may have been those responding to comments of … Michelle Obama.
Shortly after Michelle Obama declared she was proud of her country for “the first time in my adult lifetime,” as her husband campaigned in Wisconsin, Cindy McCain introduced her spouse at a rally by making her “pride” well known. “I’m proud of my country. I don’t know if you heard those words earlier. I’m very proud of my country,” she said.
Some saw her words as something of an attack on Mrs. Obama and, perhaps, not the best way to introduce Mrs. McCain, though it made her the obvious winner of the pride-off.
In the end, though, they didn’t do much to change how people view Cindy McCain. A recent Newsweek poll found that 48 percent of Americans didn’t know enough about her to form an opinion.
Mrs. McCain is having something of a coming out party this week. She appears on the cover of Newsweek, in a piece that features that poll and is headlined “In Search of Cindy McCain.”
Judging from queries sent to some of our 11 communities, it is a search that is needed.
“Folks I’ve talked to don’t know much about her, so I’d say Cindy McCain hasn’t had much of an impact on the campaign for McCain either way,” says Kristi Bohannon, a Patchwork correspondent in Nixa, Mo. (our “Evangelical Epicenter”). “I’ve seen a couple interviews with her and, in my opinion, she’s well-spoken and the McCain camp doesn’t use her enough.”
One correspondent in Hopkinsville, Ky., (our “Military Bastion”) said people he talks to think Cindy “looks very much the part of a first lady.” Another there simply said he had heard “Not a word about Mrs. McCain.”
In Clermont, Fla. (our “Emptying Nests” community), one correspondent took the question to the next level. “Does McCain even have a wife?” he wrote in an e-mail. “I can’t even generate an impression of her at all.”
In Los Alamos, N.M., (our “Monied ‘Burb” community) Ron Dolin, the GOP county chair, a man who clearly knows there is a Mrs. McCain, argued in an e-mail that Cindy McCain’s role in the campaign is deliberately one step removed because of her husband’s political style and her own wishes.
“Cindy does not put herself out there like Michelle, so while it is fair to question both and give them a look, Michelle is part of the Obama Campaign and what she says and what she does is fair game for political fodder. As of yet, I don’t think the same applies to Cindy…. However, that can change depending on her role in the McCain campaign.”
Eventually the McCain camp will “reintroduce” John McCain to voters to help frame the candidate’s personal story for the fall. (The Obama camp will do the same.) Involving Cindy McCain more could help bring the personal side of Senator McCain’s life into focus in a campaign in which the Democratic candidate has appeared with a young and photogenic family to great effect.
But the fact that she is such a blank canvas to many voters would seem to present team McCain with an opportunity and a challenge.
Over the coming weeks and months, his campaign will get to present the Cindy McCain they want voters to know – the former teacher for special-needs children, the adoptive parent of a child from Mother Teresa’s orphanage. There will be no preset image to overcome.
But Cindy McCain’s increased involvement will inevitably bring more attention to the fact that she is McCain’s second wife and a wealthy heiress, to boot. Those may not be strong points for cultural conservatives or present a sympathetic image for voters in a campaign year conducted during economic hard times.
It’s impossible to know if one of those images will win out. But one thing is certain: The number of people who have an opinion of Cindy McCain is about to increase.
June 25th, 2008 at 12:03 pm EDT
Truth be told, Mrs. McCain was addicted to painkillers when three of her children were very young. She forged prescriptions and stole drugs from a children’s charity she ran, using her employees names for the prescriptions. Anyone reading this might think this is just too fantastic to be true. How could this have not come out? It’s all about to “hit the fan,” as they say. (See current Newsweek cover story “Behind That Smile.” You’ll have to dig deep, as this information is buried far into the article, but a web search for “Cindy McCain drug addiction” will bring up countless reliable references to this). Almost anyone else in America would have been sent to jail for these felonies, but Mrs. McCain, a wealthy white woman married to a powerful U.S. Senator skirted the punishment applied to everyone else. Had she been a black woman from the south side of Chicago, as Michelle Obama is, America’s double standard would have been applied. Can you just imagine what the press would be doing right now if this had been Michelle Obama, who gets shredded for a simple “gaffe?!” There’s a whole lot more to know about Mrs. McCain.
June 25th, 2008 at 2:49 pm EDT
Cindy McCain is actually a wonderful woman. She has been very actively involved in helping world problems, she has traveled to many countries working on the clearing up of land mines ( on a detonation team and service on their board) and she also is very involved with numerous charities. She is a gentle behind the scenes woman who has done only wonderful things. When people speak of the pain killer addiction , it is unkind and a partial truth because at that time she had serious back problems and surgery . She was very open about that and she does not take any pain killers now. She is very involved as well with childrens’ charities, but does not toot her own horn so to speak. She and her husband adopted a child from Bangledesh in 1991. Cindy McCain is also active in “Halo Trust” an operation which provides food, water, and help in developing countries as well as war ravaged countries. She is actually a very wonderful woman. I don’t know why people feel they have to say such mean things about people as one reads in the media, it is unfair to people who are giving their lives to good causes.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:49 pm EDT
For example, I could say that I was proud of my son on graduation. I was very proud when he got the career that he wanted. For the very first time in my adult life, I was really proud when he gave me my grandson.
Another example: I was proud of my nation when it passed the anti-lynching law. I was proud of the Brown Decision. I was very proud of the Civil Rights Act. For the very first time in my adult life, I was really proud of my nation that allowed an African-American and a woman as serious competitors in this election.
Now, for all those eager to stereotype me, I come as white as they can come from hillbillies of the Blue Ridge Mountains. May God let me live long enough for the first time in my adult life that I can really be proud of the vast majority of Christians walking the second mile in trying to understand their fellow man rather than slapping them on the cheek for a phrase that was taken out of context. When a non-Christian rebukes them for their behavior, they will be like a denying Peter and say: “What do you expect us to do? Turn the other cheek?” (Catholics against Bill Maher of Real Time)
I am a nobody to say this to you. But, my friend, a lawyer, would sing “Lily of the Valley” just for me. I come from a long line of carpenters and named after Grandma Lillie who could break up bloody feuds by getting people to laugh rather than to fuss over words.
Please allow the Lord Jesus Christ share his good humor with you as He did with my grandmother. She faced her relatives who were willing to kill one another. Today, we face nuclear feuds willing to sacrifice all the children of Father Abraham.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am EDT
Give Senator McCain credit for smarts… he parlayed his war hero status into a P.R. job with a major beer distributor. Then he married the boss’s daughter. That history proves the guy knows what he’s doing. Anyone who can
plan his campaign that well deserves to lead the country. We need that kind
of artful self-interest harnessed to the nation’s needs.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:29 pm EDT
Cindy McCain has done a lot of amazing things in her life - such as volunteering for non-profits and adopting an underprivileged child. But the marriage carries a lot of baggage, which is why the McCain campaign does not want to use her as much as they could. 1) She was actively dating John when he was still married to Carol McCain, and she married him exactly one month after he ditched Carol in divorce. (Carol refused to sign or accept service of the divorce papers, so the divorce was granted by default). 2) She stole drugs from a non-profit organization, was investigated by the US Attorney’s office, but received no jail time. 3) It’s well known in D.C. that McCain cheated on both Cindy and Carol on numerous occasions.
Barack and Michelle simply don’t have this kind of ugly history, so it is easier for Michelle to step out there. Barack never ditched a handicapped wife for a rich 25 year old. Michelle did not date a married man. Barack (as far as we know) never cheated on Michelle . . . their marriage stands up to a lot more scrutiny.
June 28th, 2008 at 3:03 pm EDT
I don’t want this woman near the White House. She’s a bad example for young girls and young ladies. She’s bad representation for the women of the USA. I don’t want her traveling all over the world representing me. The term is First Lady. We like to throw that word around loosely these days, when in fact, Cindy McCain is just a female. She is trash with 100 million dollars plus in the bank. Can’t buy class. Truth is, if any of us regular Americans would have defrauded a charity we helped found by stealing and do the drugs intended for other patients, we’d be in jail. Cindy has done no jail time. If we had done what she did, we’d be running fromt the cops, not running for the White House. If I were Cindy McCain, I’d be running around screaming about how proud she is of America, too. Clearly, she’s above the law, more special than everyone else (including Martha Stewart, who served her time) in the USA. She’s so precious she couldn’t do the crime and the time, just the crime. Felons can’t even vote, much less think about being First Lady. I don’t know enough (yet) to go into much detail here, but I believe she was tied up in some scandal where some other people (who were doing exactly what she was doing) got jail time, and again, Cindy McCain did not, she only got richer out of the scandal. Her marriage isn’t my business, but she latched on with John McCain while his first wife was in an accident, and became crippled. The first Mrs. McCain, was thrown over for Cindy. Michelle Obama is clearly the lady I want my children to see in The White House. She is, in fact, a lady. Regardless of how everyone tries to twist her words about how she’s not proud. That’s not true. She’s very proud of America and loves it, too. It’s in her everyday actions, in how she lives. Michelle Obama is a beautiful hard working American wife and mother who just tries to do the right thing. She is my choice for First Lady and her husband’s my choice for President of the USA.
Obama 08!!!!!!!
June 29th, 2008 at 6:34 pm EDT
Does anyone really know how long Cindy McCain taught children with Special Needs? Where did she teach? What kinds of disabilities did have? If you get a degree in a field and work in that field for a couple of years, do you get to call yourself a teacher?
If you are an heiress to millions of dollars and get to be a philanthropist using corporate money on tax deductible projects of your choice that’s nice, but it is not an accomplishment. Has Cindy McCain actually rolled up her sleeves, broken a finger nail or two and gotten dirty or is she just showing up for the ribbon cutting ceremonies, hugging children and kissing babies? When I think of volunteering, I think of the person that shows up at the soup kitchen week after week, pouring soup into bowls.
She adopted a child from a foreign country. That’s nice too.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:42 pm EDT
The proper permits were not pulled when the McCains converted this condo into one from two condos (1105 &1106) for the roof top zero edge pool, sun deck, spa, fire pit, gas barbeque, men’s and ladies’ locker rooms, steam rooms, massage room
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