I see H. Ross Perot (he was famous before he ran for President!) has brought up John McCain's treatment of his first wife. To recap, by the time he returned from Vietnam, McCain's first wife had been in a serious car accident. McCain, being an understanding guy, proceeded to chase women and ended up courting his current wife Cindy while still married (this has been conveniently glossed over in the current rev of McCain's wikipedia page, which only suggests that McCain 'met and began a relationship' with Cindy a few months before divorcing Carol Shepp McCain and elides the extramarital affairs that McCain himself has acknowledged, but you can find an old version here). Hensley family wealth and personal connections, of course, helped McCain win his first run for Congress in 1982.
I'm really curious what the more explicitly family-values-oriented conservatives like Ross Douthat think of this particular story. If you think a candidate's behavior in his or her personal life bears relevance to his merits as a Presidential candidate, McCain's dalliances with other women and near gold-digging appear fundamentally disqualifying, roughly on par with anything Rudy Giuliani did to his spouses.
Those who support McCain--those "family values"/moral uprightness people--really need to hear story of the first Mrs. McCain. They must learn of Carol's horrible accident that resulted in a near-death experience and the loss of several inches of bone from her legs (and thus, her height), her six months in hospital, her being confined to a wheelchair and gaining weight and, upon his return from Vietnam, not looking quite the beauty he married, and finally, John McCain's near-immediate plunge into a lifestyle of carousing and running around on her, culminating in his affair with Cindy McCain (all while still married, mind you) and dumping his crippled wife for her.
It is a chilling story, and it speaks volumes about the character and priorities of the angry, unstable, and peculiar man the right are desperately trying to foist on the nation.
Posted by: litbrit | June 09, 2008 at 10:02 AM
Sigh.
I feel dirty for going there, but:
John McCain's tenure at the Hanoi Hilton deserves more scrutiny. Also, he's getting +$58K TAX FREE for 'disability', while voting against expanding veterans benefits. see http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pension22apr22,1,6562984.story
And, if you want to talk about the weird case of Cindy McCain's addiction to painkillers and her stint in a diversion program after stealing drugs from a 'veterans help' organization she set up, it's apparently true.
Obama and his campaign can't bring this up, but perhaps Mrs. Clinton could...
Something like a speech about drug costs and/or how we are killing veterans with red tape, bad treatment, and official denial of their real conditions while the Right uses the soldiers a shield for criticism of this misbegotten war and symbol of patriotism to cover war profiteering and malfeasance.
“And Mr. McCain’s wife, while hooked on narcotic painkillers, stole the medication of the veterans she claims to support.”
http://www.commondreams.org/views/021400-102.htm
They lied about Kerry and said "it's just Politics, son..." If we tell the truth, it might be heard.
Posted by: MR Bill | June 09, 2008 at 10:11 AM