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This video was added in December 2007 on Politics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJzItZLUA6g&NR=1
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On the stump: Cindy McCain speaks to reporters in Birmingham, Mich. Her arm was sprained when an enthusiastic supporter vigorously shook her hand. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
Cindy McCain's past is the latest to be questioned after errors were found.
Reporter Alexandra Marks talks about political candidates and the need to clarify the family history.
Reporter Alexandra Marks
Gilding the lily is nothing new to politics. From the 1840s when William Henry Harrison claimed to have been born in a log cabin (it was actually a Virginia plantation) to Ronald Reagan’s reminiscing about flying over Germany in World War II (he did, but only in a movie), politicians have taken perfectly good stories and embellished them.
This campaign is no exception. During the primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton had to back away from claims she “ducked sniper fire” in Bosnia in 1996. Mitt Romney found himself having to explain how he “saw my father march with Martin Luther King,” when it turned out his father never marched with the Rev. Mr. King.
The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.
The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.
Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)
Such exaggerations may simply be the product of a faulty memory or a desire to be “better” than one is in a political culture that requires larger-than-life idols. But with the advent of the fact-checking obsessed blogosphere – and a media racing to keep up – such self-aggrandizement doesn’t last as long as it once did.
“It’s all about myth-making,” says Darrell West, the director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Politicians love to turn their stories into great epics, and sometimes they have to embellish to smooth out the story line.”
“But now there are too many professional and amateur fact-checkers,” he says. “And there are hundreds if not thousands of bloggers who have detailed knowledge on specialized information, so you really can’t get away with stretching the truth anymore.”
The story about Mother Teresa “convincing” Mrs. McCain to bring home two children from an orphanage in Bangladesh has been retold many times. Initially, the “About Cindy McCain” page on the McCain campaign website read: “Mother Teresa convinced Cindy to take two babies in need of medical attention to the United States. One of those babies is now their adopted daughter, 16-year-old Bridget McCain.”
The media picked up the theme. A story earlier this year on ABC’s “Good Morning America” stated, “With Mother Teresa’s encouragement she brought her fourth child, Bridget, home.” An April 2008 Wall Street Journal profile states that Mother Teresa “implored” Cindy to bring the girls to the United States. Other articles say Cindy did it “at the behest” of Mother Teresa.
But a source who was with McCain on that 1991 trip, and who asked that his name not be used because of prior legal dealings with the McCain family, says that Mother Teresa was not at the orphanage when Cindy decided to bring the two girls home.
A 1991 article in the Arizona Star at the time of the adoption only mentions that the children were from an orphanage that was started by Mother Teresa. It does not mention a meeting with Mother Teresa or her asking McCain to bring the girls to the US.
According to biographies of Mother Teresa, in 1991 she was in Mexico where she developed medical problems. From there, she went to a hospital in La Jolla, Calif.
A McCain source acknowledged that Cindy McCain did not meet Mother Teresa during the 1991 trip to Bangladesh but said McCain did meet her later on, although the source could not say when or where. The campaign has since reworded the reference to the adoption on its website.
In another instance, McCain told the Chicago Tribune earlier this year that on one of her medical missions to Vietnam she was in “the very hospital – and in the very room – where her husband was brought after being shot down and then beaten by a mob during the war.”
A 1992 Washington Times story recounts a different version: “Mrs. McCain asked to see the operating room and her husband’s cell, but was turned down. She took the rejection philosophically. ‘It’s 27 years later. Let’s go on,’ Mrs. McCain said.”
The McCain campaign again declined to comment on the discrepancy.
On background, a source close to Mrs. McCain confirmed that she was denied entry. But, the source added: “At some point thereafter, she toured the hospital and did coincidentally end up in the senator’s room.”
“Everybody tells white lies, but in the political world it’s a little different because it raises the question that if people lie about little things, are they also going to lie about big stuff that really matters?” says Mr. West.
Misremembering and stretching the truth is without doubt a bipartisan phenomenon. Twenty years ago, Sen. Joe Biden (D) of Delaware’s presidential campaign faltered when it was learned that he had lifted passages from a speech by then-British Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock and that he’d also said he’d done better in law school than he actually had.
“You always have to look for a pattern,” says political analyst Larry Sabato, at the University of Virginia. “If it happens once, you can say it’s a memory problem, but if there’s a pattern there, there’s a problem.”
By DOUG THOMPSON
John McCain, a member of the House of Representatives in the mid-1980s, often held court at a table near the bar at Bullfeathers, a popular Capitol Hill watering hole, telling jokes and matching hangers-on drink by drink.
As a Capitol Hill chief of staff, I often drank at Bullfeathers and was invited to join the throng at McCain's table one evening. A few minutes listening to the racism, bigotry and homophobia of the Arizona Congressman told me all I needed to know.
McCain loved to tell jokes about lesbians, blacks, Hispanics and the Vietnamese community that occupied a large section of Arlington County, Virginia, just south of the District of Columbia.
Of course, McCain didn't use polite language in the jokes: He used names like "fags" or "queers" or "dykes" or "niggers" or "spics" or "wetbacks" or "gooks."
A typical McCain joke:
Two dykes are talking at a bar and one leaves. As she walks toward the door, the other watches her leave and says out loud: "God, I've love to eat her out."Two men are standing near by and one turns to the other and says: "I'd like to do the same. Guess that makes me a dyke."
Two dykes are talking at a bar and one leaves. As she walks toward the door, the other watches her leave and says out loud: "God, I've love to eat her out."
Two men are standing near by and one turns to the other and says: "I'd like to do the same. Guess that makes me a dyke."
Or another:
Question: Why does Mexican beer have two "X's" on the label?Answer: Because wetbacks always need a co-signer.
Question: Why does Mexican beer have two "X's" on the label?
Answer: Because wetbacks always need a co-signer.
When he ran for the Senate, I attended a gathering of GOP operatives at the National Republican Senatorial Committee where McCain outlined his campaign strategy:
I play to win. I do whatever it takes to win. If I have to fuck my opponent to win I'll do it. If I have to destroy my opponent I won't give it a second thought.
This is the man the Republican Party thinks should be the next President of the United States. What else should we expect from a party that promotes racism, homophobia and discrimination against anyone with a different skin color, sexual orientation or ethnic origin?
So we shouldn't be surprised that McCain's campaign strategy seeks to raise racial fear about Barack Obama, the first African-American with a serious shot at the Presidency of the United States.
John McCain is a racist: Always has been, always will be. Those who served with him in the Navy say he treated black sailors with disrespect and scorn. His collection of off-color jokes are riddled with racist words and sentiments. Advisors have toned down the raunchy rhetoric of his early years in Congress but close aides say his attitudes have not changed.
McCain opposed making the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King a national holiday. During his 2000 campaign for President, he told reporters on his "Straight Talk Express: "I hated the gooks (North Vietnamese). I will hate them as long as I live."
Katie Hong of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who reported the remark, wrote:
It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.
It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group.
It is alarming because a major candidate for president publicly used a racial epithet, refused to apologize for doing so and remains a legitimate contender.
For his 2000 campaign for President, McCain hired Richard Quinn, founder and editor in chief of Southern Heritage Magazine, to serve as his spokesman in South Carolina.
Notes Salon.Com:
Quinn's articles have called Nelson Mandela a "terrorist" and King a man "whose role in history was to lead his people into a perpetual dependence on the welfare state, a terrible bondage of body and soul." In another piece, Quinn said of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, "What better way to reject politics as usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?" though he did condemn Duke's bigotry.
Irwin A. Tank, author of Gook: John McCain's Racism, notes a long and sordid history of racism from the presumptive GOP nominee, including:
The list goes on and on.
What else do you expect from a racist?
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/10086
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/597529
http://www.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.10.swf?&loc=/&vid=596875
A McCain Presidency - Far Worse Than Bush-Cheney
The Voice of the White House6-17-08
WASHINGTON DC -- " In this report, I would like to take some time to discuss certain, potentially deadly, medical problems of Senator John McCain,( R ), Arizona .
In some elevated circles here inside the Beltway, he is known as 'Insane McCain.' This is not meant as a real insult but a professional comment on his various rather obvious problems.
You should note that there are individuals in this country who wield great but anonymous power. They are what, in earlier times, would be called the King Makers. They are very pragmatic, very rich businessmen whom C. Wright Mills called the Power Elite. They have been happy with Bush and Cheney because these two were very, very friendly to businessmen. Tax breaks, stripping regulatory agencies of annoying investigators, huge governmental contracts for the fabricated war in Iraq .
Now, we have a new election. Obama is a mystery to them. He is very intelligent, very articulate and has run a magnificent campaign. Obama has become a great political force in America and the Power Elite have no real connection with him. There have been no previous briberies to hold over his head so controlling a relatively unknown person is not as clear-cut.
McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee is another matter. He is a man entirely in their pocket. McCain loves money and hides behind the false Jessica Lynch type fiction of a war hero. He was no such thing and has been strongly suspected of cooperating with Soviet CIA people who interrogated him while he was a POW in Hanoi during the Vietnam war.
His one real asset is his wife who has given him huge sums of money for his campaign but his faults are probably enough to keep him out of the Oval Office.
There exists, and has been circulated, a military medical examination report on McCain. I seen a copy as have many others but I cannot have it put up on the internet because it is a personal medical record and as such, secure from exposure. However, it is not illegal to discuss the thrust of the report. There is a discussion of McCain's earlier melanoma which appears to in remission but not gone. His mental state is also covered.
There are some interesting passages that speak of "a sharp drop in function.deficits in global cognitive ability, episodic memorydeficits in verbal ability.words do not come as quickly as they once did.and under executive functionhis decision making has become more challenging.recent recall is diminishedrecent events quickly forgotten (McCain will make a flat statement of policy on television and three days later, when asked about it by a media reporter, will flatly, and angrily, deny ever having said it) ..forgets common words while speaking or will substitute unusual wordshas been forgetting recently learned information
There are few secrets these days and McCain's problems are not unknown. The point is, will McCain have a chance of becoming President and, in effect, give America a third term for Bush's policies?
This is all very interesting but I have something that might be of some interest to my readers and show several things I have been speaking of here. People suffering with pre-Alzheimer's have motor problems. In McCain's case, it has been observed that he has problems with learned habits. McCain is left-handed but was taught to shake hands with his right hand. Now, we see him approaching people and then when it comes time to shake a hand, he hesitates, his face twitches and his head jerks to one side and you can see him try to put out his left hand. Usually, an aide will whisper to him and he will stop, make a foolish grin and put out his right hand.
I am supplying a picture of John McCain that has a most interesting background. It shows him in West Virginia in May of 2008. Note the agitated and strained expression on his faceand the extended left hand.
What is really of interest. and reflects the concern of certain powerful people, is the identity of the photographer, a man assigned to cover McCain by the Associated Press.
His name is Jeff Chiu. It might be of some interest to note that Jeff Chiu, from San Francisco , is a well-educated man. In addition to his photographic skills, ( his reputation is as a well-known sports photographer) Mr. Chiu also has a degree in psychology from the University of California , a profession which is far more profitable than photography.
That candidate McCain is under close and on-going professional clinical observation is without question and who can blame the King Makers for wanting to make absolutely certain they are not backing the wrong horse. They now have a choice between a highly successful populist whose persona is a mystery or a man whose physical and mental problems could cause them terrible future problems.
Reagan was suffering from Alzehimer's in the last years of his presidency but Reagan was very popular and relatively harmless. McCain, on the other hand, is known to have a violent temper and has recently insisted that Iran must be dealt with; that the useless Iraqi war must be continued and that the Bush tax programs need to be kept in place.
That is on the positive side for the Power Elite, but on the negative side, it is obvious, very obvious, that McCain has serious physical and mental problems that would in all probability make a McCain presidency far, far worse than the last eight years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. "
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2849.htm
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” on Monday when he apparently meant “Afghanistan”, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.
Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise: foreign affairs.
McCain will turn 72 the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts his party’s nomination for president at the age of 47, calling new attention to the sensitive issue of McCain’s advanced age three days before the start of his own convention.
The McCain campaign says Obama has had plenty of flubs of his own, including a reference to "57 states" and a string of misstated place names during the primaries that Republicans gleefully sent around as YouTube links.
McCain aides point out that he spends much more time than Obama talking extemporaneously, taking questions from voters and reporters. "Being human and tripping over your tongue occasionally doesn't mean a thing," a top McCain official said.
But McCain's mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office?
Voters, thinking about their own relatives, can be expected to scrutinize McCain’s debate performances for signs of slippage.
Every voter has a parent, grandparent or a friend whose mental acuity declined as they grew older. It happens at different times for different people — and there is ample evidence many people in their 70s are as sharp and fit as ever.
In McCain’s case, his medical records, public appearances and travel schedule have suggested he remains at the top of his game.
But his liberal critics have been pouncing on every misstatement as a sign that he’s an old man.
Already, late-night comics have made McCain’s age an almost nightly topic, with CBS’s David Letterman getting a laugh just about any time he says the words “McCain” and “nap” in the same sentence.
Last week, McCain tried to defuse the issue by pretending to doze off during an appearance with NBC’s Conan O’Brien.
Republicans would like to make the case that McCain is seasoned and Obama is a callow newcomer to the public stage. But that’ll be harder if he keeps up the verbal slips, which make it easier for comedians and critics to pile on.
“First Gaffe of Obama Trip ... Goes To McCain,” blared Monday afternoon’s banner headline on the left-leaning Huffington Post, accompanied by a photo of McCain appearing to slap his forehead.
That referred to an ABCNews.com posting asserting that McCain appeared to confuse Iraq and Afghanistan in a “Good Morning America” interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, who asked whether the "the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent.”
McCain responded: “I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," McCain said. The ABC posting added: “Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do.”
Unfortunately for McCain, that wasn’t an isolated slip. Among the other lapses:
• “Somalia” for “Sudan”: As recounted in a reporter’s pool report from McCain’s Straight Talk Express bus on June 30, the senator said while discussing Darfur, a region of Sudan: "How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?"
Senior adviser Mark Salter corrected him: “Sudan.”
• “Germany” for “Russia”: A YouTube clip from last year memorializes McCain referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia — following a trip to Germany — as “President Putin of Germany.”
• This spring, McCain said troops in Iraq were “down to pre-surge levels” when in fact there were 20,000 more troops than when the surge policy began.
• Also this spring, McCain twice appeared to mistake Sunnis and Shiites, two branches of Islam that split violently.
• In Phoenix earlier this month, McCain referred to Czechoslovakia, which has been divided since Jan. 1, 1993, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also referred to Czechoslovakia during a debate in November and a radio show in April.
• In perhaps the most curious incident, McCain said earlier this month that as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he had tried to confuse his captors by giving the names of Pittsburgh Steelers starting players when asked to identify his squadron mates. McCain has told the story many times over the years — but always correctly referred to the names he gave as members of the Green Bay Packers.
► They're greeting us as Liberators - throwing flowers at his feet!!
OFF THE CHARTS!!
► Chuck Hagel, Jack Reed, Barack, and Lieutenant General Jim Lovelace (Commander US Forces - Kuwait).
► UPDATE
► The guys meet with Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin of the 82nd Airborne
► This morning with the Emir of Kuwait
► Ambassador Crocker and Chuck Hagel yuck it up with their future boss.
► Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh and Iraq's National Security Advisor Muafaq al-Rubaye
► A beaming Hagel
► On Newstands everwhere - August '08 edition.
The Nevada Republican Party decided Thursday not to reconvene its scuttled state convention this month, claiming it couldn't generate enough interest to reach a legal quorum to elect delegates to the national convention in St. Paul, Minn.The state party abruptly ended its state convention in April to head off a delegation of Ron Paul supporters who had captured control of the proceedings and appeared on track to elect a majority slate to the Sept. 1-4 national convention.Party officials planned to reconvene on July 26. But only about 300 delegates sent in RSVPs, well short of the 675 needed for a quorum.(snip)Longtime Nevada Republicans said they've never experienced an aborted state convention."I don't ever remember such chaos in the party," said Barbara Vucanovich, a former congresswoman who has been involved in party politics since the early 1950s. "Frankly, its an embarrassment for our state and also makes it difficult for John McCain. He needs all the electoral votes he can get."
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Although Republican presidential candidate John McCain has called Social Security "a disgrace," he still cashes his own retirement check every month.
McCain's 2007 tax return shows Social Security benefits of $23,157 for the year, an average of $1,929.75 a month. He said he started receiving the payments "whenever I was eligible."
Asked last week by a young woman at a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, if she is likely to receive Social Security benefits one day, McCain said it is unlikely without fixing the system.
"Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today," he said. "And that's a disgrace. It's an absolute disgrace, and it's got to be fixed."
Social Security benefits are projected to exceed the system's tax revenues in about nine years. The program's trustees have said the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by 2041 unless the system is changed.
McCain, who will turn 72 next month, was eligible to receive full-retirement benefits when he turned 65. In 2008, the maximum benefit for a person retiring at full retirement age was $2,185.
McCain reported a total income of $405,409 in 2007. As a senator, he is paid $169,300 a year. Last year, he donated $105,467 to charity, his return shows.
McCain's wife, Cindy, reported a total income of more than $6 million in 2006, according to the campaign. She files her tax return separately from her husband and has received an extension for 2007. Heiress to a large Arizona beer distributorship, she is reportedly worth more than $100 million.
People are not required to take Social Security payments, according to B.J. Jarrett, a spokesman with the Social Security Administration.
"An individual does have the right to refuse his/her Social Security retirement benefit. However, Social Security is an entitlement program and an individual would essentially be forfeiting a benefit based upon contributions during his/her working lifetime," Jarrett said.
"I told him that whenever he wanted me to do it, I was ready, and so it's basically on their timetable," Clinton said. "He's got a lot of things to do between now and the convention, of which this is simply one, so I'll do whatever I'm asked to do, whenever I can do it."
Relations between Clinton and Obama have only just began to thaw since Obama defeated the former president's wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the bruising Democratic primary that ended last month. Throughout that bare-knuckle race, Bill Clinton had portrayed Obama as too inexperienced to be president.
Since Obama clinched the nomination, it has remained an open question as to what role Clinton would play in the campaign.
Just weeks ago, Obama called the former president to ask for his help in winning the White House.
At a news conference for his foundation's work, Clinton said he had not thought about whether he would like to be a convention speaker. Typically former presidents get a prime-time speaking spot at the party gathering.
Clinton said he had a "good talk" with Obama on the phone and is eager to get out on the road for the Illinois senator.
Clinton also was asked whether he had spoken to the Rev. Jesse Jackson regarding the crude off-air remark Jackson made about Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news program.
Clinton said he had not spoken with Jackson, but added that Jackson was right to apologize to Obama for the comments. He also was a bit sympathetic.
"If all of us lived on live mics, then 100 percent of us in this room would be embarrassed from time to time," Clinton said.
John Mccain is a Man of Honor? His private life provides evidence to the contrary.
The nature and timing of his divorce from Carol Shepp alienated key friends -- and his version doesn't always match that in court documents.
By Richard A. Serrano and Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
July 11, 2008 Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement."Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op.
John Edwards could have taken the Jim Webb route when NPR grilled him yesterday about his interest in reprising his role as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, but instead he said this: "I am prepared to seriously consider anything, anything he asks me to do for our country."
If Barack Obama were to choose Edwards, it would create an unusual situation in American politics. Very rarely does a losing vice presidential nominee land on someone else's ticket in a future election. Edwards would be the fourth person ever to do this, and the first since 1916.
The others:
Thomas Hendricks, the Democratic governor of Indiana first ran as Samuel Tilden's running mate in the 1876 election. The Tilden-Hendricks ticket actually won the popular vote, but Republican Rutherford Hayes maneuvered his way to a controversial 185-184 victory in the Electoral College. Hendricks sat out the 1880 election, but was chosen in 1884 as Grover Cleveland's running mate. The Democrats narrowly defeated Maine's James Blaine in the general election, but the 66-year-old Hendricks died eight months after taking office.
Adlai Stevenson I was a congressman from Illinois when the Democrats nominated him to run with Grover Cleveland in 1892, when Cleveland was seeking to reclaim the White House after a four-year absence. Stevenson was placed on the ticket to appease the party base, and he and Cleveland went on to defeat incumbent Republican Benjamin Harrison and his running mate, Whitelaw Reid, in the fall. But when Cleveland stepped aside in 1896, Democrats snubbed Stevenson at their convention and instead nominated the charismatic William Jennings Bryan for president. Bryan lost to William McKinley but emerged again in 1900 as the Democratic nominee and – with most prominent Democrats unwilling to run for VP in what seemed to a be a doomed election for their party – turned to Stevenson as a way of uniting the party base.
Charles Fairbanks was chosen in 1904 to run with Theodore Roosevelt on the Republican ticket in what proved to be one of the more uneventful general elections in American history, with Roosevelt and Fairbanks trouncing Democrats Alton B. Parker and Henry Gassaway Davis (at 81, the oldest person ever nominated for national office by a major party). Roosevelt essentially chose his own successor in 1908, but passed over Fairbanks for William Howard Taft. Fairbanks reemerged in 1916, though, when he was tapped to run with Charles Evans Hughes, who very nearly unseated Woodrow Wilson.
One other name could also be on this list is Rufus King, who represented New York in the Senate and who was the Federalist Party's nominee for VP in both 1804 and 1808, losing both elections. But unlike the others on this list, King ran both times with the same presidential nominee, Charles Pinckney.
Now that Hillary Clinton has at last formally withdrawn from the race for the White House, the eyes of America and the world will focus on Barack Obama and his Republican rival Senator John McCain. While Obama will surely press his credentials as the embodiment of the American dream – a handsome, charismatic young black man who was raised on food stamps by a single mother and who represents his country’s future – McCain will present himself as a selfless, principled war hero whose campaign represents not so much a battle for the presidency of the United States, but a crusade to rescue the nation’s tarnished reputation.
Forgotten woman: But despite all her problems Carol McCain says she still adores he ex-husband
McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.
But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.
And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.
She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.
But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries.
When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons
had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter.
Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.
Today, she stands at just 5ft 4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.
For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.
John and Cindy McCain at a charity gala in Los Angeles
Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. ‘I have no bitterness,’
she says. ‘My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn’t the reason for my divorce.
‘My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.’
Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.
McCain was then earning little more than 25,000 a year as a naval officer, while his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections.
He first met Carol in the Fifties while he was at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. He was a privileged, but rebellious scion of one of America’s most distinguished military dynasties – his father and grandfather were both admirals.
But setting out to have a good time, the young McCain hung out with a group of young officers who called themselves the ‘Bad Bunch’.
His primary interest was women and his conquests ranged from a knife-wielding floozy nicknamed ‘Marie, the Flame of Florida’ to a tobacco heiress.
Carol fell into his fast-living world by accident. She escaped a poor upbringing in Philadelphia to become a successful model, married an Annapolis classmate of McCain’s and had two children – Douglas and Andrew – before renewing what one acquaintance calls ‘an old flirtation’ with McCain.
It seems clear she was bowled over by McCain’s attention at a time when he was becoming bored with his playboy lifestyle.
‘He was 28 and ready to settle down and he loved Carol’s children,’ recalled another Annapolis graduate, Robert Timberg, who wrote The Nightingale’s Song, a bestselling biography of McCain and four other graduates of the academy.
The couple married and McCain adopted Carol’s sons. Their daughter, Sidney, was born a year later, but domesticity was clearly beginning
to bore McCain – the couple were regarded as ‘fixtures on the party circuit’ before McCain requested combat duty in Vietnam at the end of 1966.
He was assigned as a bomber pilot on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin.
What follows is the stuff of the McCain legend. He was shot down over Hanoi in October 1967 on his 23rd mission over North Vietnam and was badly beaten by an angry mob when he was pulled, half-drowned from a lake.
War hero: McCain with Carol as he arrives back in the US in 1973 after his five years as a PoW in North Vietnam
Over the next five-and-a-half years in the notorious Hoa Loa Prison he was regularly tortured and mistreated.
It was in 1969 that Carol went to spend the Christmas holiday – her third without McCain – at her parents’ home. After dinner, she left to drop off some presents at a friend’s house.
It wasn’t until some hours later that she was discovered, alone and in terrible pain, next to the wreckage of her car. She had been hurled through the windscreen.
After her first series of life-saving operations, Carol was told she may never walk again, but when doctors said they would try to get word to McCain about her injuries, she refused, insisting: ‘He’s got enough problems, I don’t want to tell him.’
H. Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, future presidential candidate and advocate of prisoners of war, paid for her medical care.
When McCain – his hair turned prematurely white and his body reduced to little more than a skeleton – was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again.
But friends say privately he was ‘appalled’ by the change in her appearance. At first, though, he was kind, assuring her: ‘I don’t look so good myself. It’s fine.’
He bought her a bungalow near the sea in Florida and another former PoW helped him to build a railing so she could pull herself over the dunes to the water.
‘I thought, of course, we would live happily ever after,’ says Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles.
Through Ross Perot, he met Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California. A sympathetic Nancy Reagan took Carol under her wing.
But already the McCains’ marriage had begun to fray. ‘John started carousing and running around with women,’ said Robert Timberg.
McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details. Some friends blame his dissatisfaction with Carol, but others give some credence to her theory of a mid-life crisis.
He was also fiercely ambitious, but it was clear he would never become an admiral like his illustrious father and grandfather and his thoughts were turning to politics.
In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage.
Carol and her children were devastated. ‘It was a complete surprise,’ says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide.
‘They never displayed any difficulties between themselves. I know the Reagans were quite shocked because they loved and respected both Carol and John.’
Another friend added: ‘Carol didn’t fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through. She used to say, “He just wants to make up for lost time.”’
Indeed, to many in their circle the saddest part of the break-up was Carol’s decision to resign herself to losing a man she says she still adores.
Friends confirm she has remained friends with McCain and backed him in all his campaigns. ‘He was very generous to her in the divorce but of course he could afford to be, since he was marrying Cindy,’ one observed.
McCain transferred the Florida beach house to Carol and gave her the right to live in their jointly-owned townhouse in the Washington suburb of Alexandria. He also agreed to pay her alimony and child support.
A former neighbour says she subsequently sold up in Florida and Washington and moved in 2003 to Virginia Beach. He said: ‘My impression was that she found the new place easier to manage as she still has some difficulties walking.’
Meanwhile McCain moved to Arizona with his new bride immediately after their 1980 marriage. There, his new father-in-law gave him a job and introduced him to local businessmen and political powerbrokers who would smooth his passage to Washington via the House of Representatives and Senate.
And yet despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won’t forget his treatment of his first wife.
Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit.
‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.
‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.
‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’
One old friend of the McCains said: ‘Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that’s a defence mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.’
Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain’s political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her.
Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. ‘He’s a good guy,’ she assured us. ‘We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.’
But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.
‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.
‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’
I want to take this opportunity to speak directly to those of you who oppose my decision to support the FISA compromise. This was not an easy call for me. I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect. I wouldn't have drafted the legislation like this, and it does not resolve all of the concerns that we have about President Bush's abuse of executive power. It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that may have violated the law by cooperating with the Bush Administration's program of warrantless wiretapping. This potentially weakens the deterrent effect of the law and removes an important tool for the American people to demand accountability for past abuses. That's why I support striking Title II from the bill, and will work with Chris Dodd, Jeff Bingaman and others in an effort to remove this provision in the Senate. But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court. In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people. But in a free society, that authority cannot be unlimited. As I've said many times, an independent monitor must watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people. This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibilityThe Inspectors General report also provides a real mechanism for accountability and should not be discounted. It will allow a close look at past misconduct without hurdles that would exist in federal court because of classification issues. The recent investigation uncovering the illegal politicization of Justice Department hiring sets a strong example of the accountability that can come from a tough and thorough IG report. The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I'm persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe -- particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I've chosen to support the current compromise. I do so with the firm intention -- once I’m sworn in as President -- to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future. Now, I understand why some of you feel differently about the current bill, and I'm happy to take my lumps on this side and elsewhere. For the truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions. No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true -- not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down. I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. I'm certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too. I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue. But I do promise to listen to your concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to change the country. That is why we have built the largest grassroots campaign in the history of presidential politics, and that is the kind of White House that I intend to run as President of the United States -- a White House that takes the Constitution seriously, conducts the peoples' business out in the open, welcomes and listens to dissenting views, and asks you to play your part in shaping our country’s destiny. Democracy cannot exist without strong differences. And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That's ok. But I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have. After all, the choice in this election could not be clearer. Whether it is the economy, foreign policy, or the Supreme Court, my opponent has embraced the failed course of the last eight years, while I want to take this country in a new direction. Make no mistake: if John McCain is elected, the fundamental direction of this country that we love will not change. But if we come together, we have an historic opportunity to chart a new course, a better course. So I appreciate the feedback through my.barackobama.com, and I look forward to continuing the conversation in the months and years to come. Together, we have a lot of work to do.
I want to take this opportunity to speak directly to those of you who oppose my decision to support the FISA compromise.
This was not an easy call for me. I know that the FISA bill that passed the House is far from perfect. I wouldn't have drafted the legislation like this, and it does not resolve all of the concerns that we have about President Bush's abuse of executive power. It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that may have violated the law by cooperating with the Bush Administration's program of warrantless wiretapping. This potentially weakens the deterrent effect of the law and removes an important tool for the American people to demand accountability for past abuses. That's why I support striking Title II from the bill, and will work with Chris Dodd, Jeff Bingaman and others in an effort to remove this provision in the Senate.
But I also believe that the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court. In a dangerous world, government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people. But in a free society, that authority cannot be unlimited. As I've said many times, an independent monitor must watch the watchers to prevent abuses and to protect the civil liberties of the American people. This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility
The Inspectors General report also provides a real mechanism for accountability and should not be discounted. It will allow a close look at past misconduct without hurdles that would exist in federal court because of classification issues. The recent investigation uncovering the illegal politicization of Justice Department hiring sets a strong example of the accountability that can come from a tough and thorough IG report.
The ability to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States is a vital counter-terrorism tool, and I'm persuaded that it is necessary to keep the American people safe -- particularly since certain electronic surveillance orders will begin to expire later this summer. Given the choice between voting for an improved yet imperfect bill, and losing important surveillance tools, I've chosen to support the current compromise. I do so with the firm intention -- once I’m sworn in as President -- to have my Attorney General conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and to make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future.
Now, I understand why some of you feel differently about the current bill, and I'm happy to take my lumps on this side and elsewhere. For the truth is that your organizing, your activism and your passion is an important reason why this bill is better than previous versions. No tool has been more important in focusing peoples' attention on the abuses of executive power in this Administration than the active and sustained engagement of American citizens. That holds true -- not just on wiretapping, but on a range of issues where Washington has let the American people down.
I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. I'm certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too. I cannot promise to agree with you on every issue. But I do promise to listen to your concerns, take them seriously, and seek to earn your ongoing support to change the country. That is why we have built the largest grassroots campaign in the history of presidential politics, and that is the kind of White House that I intend to run as President of the United States -- a White House that takes the Constitution seriously, conducts the peoples' business out in the open, welcomes and listens to dissenting views, and asks you to play your part in shaping our country’s destiny.
Democracy cannot exist without strong differences. And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker. That's ok. But I think it is worth pointing out that our agreement on the vast majority of issues that matter outweighs the differences we may have. After all, the choice in this election could not be clearer. Whether it is the economy, foreign policy, or the Supreme Court, my opponent has embraced the failed course of the last eight years, while I want to take this country in a new direction. Make no mistake: if John McCain is elected, the fundamental direction of this country that we love will not change. But if we come together, we have an historic opportunity to chart a new course, a better course.
So I appreciate the feedback through my.barackobama.com, and I look forward to continuing the conversation in the months and years to come. Together, we have a lot of work to do.
In this May 21, 2007 file photo, Caroline Kennedy is seen during the JFK Profile in Courage Award presentations at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Caroline Kennedy lives a very private life with a very public profile, the perfect skill set for her newest assignment as part of Barack Obama's vice presidential search team.
The question bounced around the Internet and tumbled from the lips of Washington insiders: Why would Barack Obama choose Caroline Kennedy, a reluctant public figure with little affection for modern politics, to vet the next Democratic vice presidential candidate?
A month into the search, as one of two remaining members of the search team, Kennedy is emerging as an active participant, slipping largely unnoticed around Capitol Hill for private meetings and exercising the kind of discretion that made her an appealing choice in the first place. Despite initial skepticism in some quarters that her appointment was window dressing, associates and at least one member of Congress who met with Kennedy describe her as an engaged and savvy operative.
Consider these scenes last month at Democratic National Committee headquarters.
Shortly after Obama finished his meeting two weeks ago with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Kennedy slipped out the back door of the office and moved unseen past a knot of TV camera crews loading equipment on their trucks. Wearing sensible silver flats and clutching a folder in one hand, Kennedy escaped onto Independence Avenue to hail a cab with Eric Holder, the other half of the search team.
A week later, as dozens of reporters filtered into a first floor DNC meeting room for a briefing from Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, Kennedy once again eluded most of the gathering media mob.
“One of the great assets and gifts that Caroline brings to the process is confidentiality and discretion,” said Paul G. Kirk Jr., board chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a former Democratic National Committee chairman. “She wouldn’t be sharing what she did with anyone other than her team and her candidate.”
Indeed, when Obama clinched the nomination, he told reporters to expect to hear nothing from him or his campaign until he introduces his vice presidential pick. It didn’t quite start out that way, as Holder and James A. Johnson, who was picked to lead the team but later resigned amid questions about his business dealings, attracted a crush of media coverage when they visited the Capitol several days later to consult with members of Congress. (Kennedy did not participate in those meetings.)
Since then, the process has drawn considerably less attention.
When Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) huddled with the team at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headquarters on June 17, even one of the senator’s top communications aides was not clued in on key details. “They were discreet meetings,” the aide said.
Kennedy tapped Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, a Michigan Democrat and chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, for advice. She did the same with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Rep. Joe Baca, a California Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said that when he met with the search team two weeks ago, he found Kennedy doing more of the talking than Holder.
With a soft voice and an unassuming demeanor, Kennedy peppered Baca with questions, asking for opinions on specific candidates and pulling ideas from him about who Obama should choose.
“I felt connected with her,” Baca said. “You felt like you wanted to have a conversation with her.”
They asked whether there were any Republicans who Obama should consider, Baca said, suggesting that “they were open to looking at both sides.”
“She is definitely deeply involved,” Baca said. “Her assessment and evaluation and recommendations are going to be considered highly.”
Kennedy offered her phone number to Baca at the close of the meeting, he said.
The vice presidential search post rounded a months-long conversion from observer to full-bore participant in what Kennedy, 50, has described on the campaign trail as the most important election since she was a child.
“She is quite selective about what she chooses to be involved in,” said John Seigenthaler Sr., a member of the Profile in Courage award committee at the Kennedy library. “For the most part, it is fair to say those interests have focused on the work of the JFK library, but there are other areas where she has not hesitated. People who haven’t observed her in those roles might be surprised that she was willing to accept it.”
“People who have watched her participate in the Kennedy library understand that for her, it is a commitment and it was not something she would take lightly,” Seigenthaler added.
For years, her public profile was as private as the process she is now helping to administer.
While her late younger brother, John Jr., entered the media world and occasionally basked in the spotlight, Caroline Kennedy has sought to avoid publicity altogether. She has raised money for the New York public schools, written and edited several books, and earned a law degree from Columbia University.
But when Kennedy stepped to the microphone at American University in January to publicly endorse Obama, she looked slightly out of her element. “Hi, everyone,” she said shyly to the crowd of thousands. When they chanted Obama’s slogan, “yes we can,” Kennedy peered down at the podium, setting up a stark contrast with the voice-straining speech from her uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, that followed.
Five months later, though, Caroline Kennedy would find herself at the center of what Obama has said would be his most important decision before Election Day.
“I wouldn’t be surprised that she is taking this on as virtually a full-time assignment, because that is just her way,” Seigenthaler said. “Once she decides that this is something that is important, her commitment will be absolute.”
Republican strategists are worried that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will make a very positive impression and burnish his international credentials when he takes his much-ballyhooed foreign trips in the coming weeks.
To reinforce such an image, Obama is billing himself as a new type of commander in chief who will listen to America's allies far more than George W. Bush has—and that is expected to be a major theme of his sojourns.
GOP candidate John McCain, who is currently on his own trip to Colombia and Mexico, has been needling Obama for his lack of foreign policy experience, and has often pointed out that Obama has not visited Iraq in many months. (Obama was there in January 2006 as part of a congressional delegation.)
Now that's about to change. Obama has announced plans to visit Great Britain, France, Germany, Israel, and Jordan in the coming weeks—and also travel to Iraq and Afghanistan before the Democratic National Convention in August.
When these trips were first disclosed, GOP advisers saw the potential for Obama to make some serious gaffes or otherwise reveal his ignorance of global and national security issues. Now many of them believe that with the kind of excellent advance work and the depth of preparation for which the Obama campaign is known, he will probably look knowledgeable, diplomatic, and presidential.
And that could be bad news for McCain, GOP insiders say.
Tue Jun 24, 11:40 AM ET In this Sept. 5, 2005 file photo, former President Bill Clinton, right, carries a young girl as he and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. visit with Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston.
WASHINGTON - The silence between Barack Obama and Bill Clinton has been broken, with the Democratic White House hopeful on Monday asking the former president to campaign for him during their first conversation since the heated primary.
The former president said through a spokesman Tuesday, June 24, 2008, that he is committed to helping Barack Obama become president, his first comments in support of his wife's former rival since their primary ended three weeks ago.
Bill Clinton was often Obama's harshest Democratic critic, trying to bring down the Illinois senator as his candidacy surpassed former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's. While Hillary Clinton has begun to help Obama by encouraging her supporters to back his campaign, a chill remained between the last Democratic president and the man running to be the next one.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said they had a "terrific conversation" and that Obama is honored to have the former president's support.
"He has always believed that Bill Clinton is one of this nation's great leaders and most brilliant minds, and looks forward to seeing him on the campaign trail and receiving his counsel in the months to come," Burton said.
Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said the former president renewed his offer — expressed in a one-sentence statement last week — to do whatever he can to ensure Obama wins the presidency.
"President Clinton continues to be impressed by Senator Obama and the campaign he has run, and looks forward to campaigning for and with him in the months to come," McKenna said. "The president believes that Senator Obama has been a great inspiration for millions of people around the country and he knows that he will bring the change America needs as our next president."
Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the senator called Clinton after Obama landed in Missouri Monday morning, and they spoke for about 20 minutes. Gibbs said Obama asked Clinton to campaign with him and separately.
"I believe he's excited to do it," Gibbs told reporters traveling with Obama
