"In 1965 John McCain, a member of the US Navy, married an attractive model named Carol Shepp. In 1967 McCain was sent to Vietnam. It didn't take long before McCain was shot down and taken prisoner. Carol waited faithfully for McCain during his imprisonment. In 1969, Carol was in a terrible car crash. She was thrown through the windshield and suffered serious injuries. But Carol would not allow her POW husband to be notified of what had happened to her because she didn't want him to feel any additional stress. She stood by her man, alone, for the 5 years he was in prison.

McCain was released in 1973 and returned home to find that Carol's accident had "left her 4 inches shorter and on crutches, and she had gained a good deal of weight." [4] McCain no longer had a trophy wife he could feel proud of.

By the late 70's McCain had engaged in adulterous behaviors, as chronicled in the book "The Nightingale's Song" by Robert Timberg. Timberg wrote:

"Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates. At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain's persona, impossible not to take note of."

In 1979 John McCain met Cindy Lou Hensley at a military reception in Hawaii. [1] Cindy was a millionaire and very attractive. McCain was eighteen years older than the wealthy Hensley, but that didn't stop him from developing an adulterous relationship with her. [2]

McCain says of their first meeting, "She was lovely, intelligent and charming, 18 years my junior but poised and confident. I monopolized her attention the entire time, taking care to prevent anyone else from intruding on our conversation. When it came time to leave the party, I persuaded her to join me for drinks at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. By the evening's end, I was in love."

Knowing that Cindy's father had extensive business and political contacts [3], McCain decided to abandon his first wife and marry Cindy. McCain divorced Carol in April 1980 and immediately married Cindy the next month, May 17th. With the Hensley fortune and connections, McCain ran for Congress in 1982. He craved power and has been on a course to secure ultimate control ever since.

A man that cannot be faithful to a loving, self-sacrificing wife cannot be trusted to be faithful to the American people. Bill Clinton taught us that. This week the New York Times reported that during his previous Presidential run in 2000, McCain may have had an inappropriate relationship with the young and lovely lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. The public, not knowing McCain's history of adultery, responded to the NY Times as if they had to be making the story up. NOW what do you think?"

http://www.nolanchart.com/article2957.html

"McCain has a reputation as a politician who has difficulty keeping his pants zipped, according to Republican sources. He acknowledges that his adultery broke up his first marriage. His second wife Cindy, the daughter of a wealthy Budweiser beer distributor, was addicted to prescription narcotics and even stole hard drugs from a medical charity that she ran. McCain acknowledges that she didn't want him to run, and only agreed once he promised that she doesn't have to go to New Hampshire or Iowa."

http://www.realchange.org/mccain.htm

McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, "aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich." McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife's family money. In 2000, McCain managed to deflect media questioning about his first marriage with a deft admission of responsibility for its failure. It's possible that the age of the offense and McCain's charmed relationship with the press will pull him through again, but Giuliani and Gingrich may face a more difficult challenge. Both conducted well-documented affairs in the last decade--while still in public office.

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/008013.php

Until you've walked in someone else's shoes, it's pretty easy to be critical of their pathway.

It's interesting that you feel McCain is so well qualified for the office of President, that the worst thing you can find about him is that he divorced his wife many years ago.

"Until you've walked in someone else's shoes, it's pretty easy to be critical of their pathway."

How hypocritical of you. Considering you feel you are so qualified to reduce Obama's experience from your armchair waterboy position without ever doing many of the public service endeavors he has. Anything less of a shallow response from you would leave us all disappointed.


"the worst thing you can find about him is that he divorced his wife many years ago."

Hardly the worst I or anyone can find. McCain has thrown away nearly his entire career of independent thinking to gain the votes of the likes of you, shifting gears to capture the few faithful conservative Republicans left and adopting positions he clearly does not believe in, hasn't supported politically his entire career, never voted for, and can't possibly justify in the court of world opinion.

He can't keep his facts straight. He's too old to lead the country.
He has no new ideas. If the press wasn't going so easy on him, he'd be even further behind in the polls than he is. Most notable, he is weak on security ... the very antithesis of his campaign.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/02/general-mccain-weak-on-security/

"Until you've walked in someone else's shoes, it's pretty easy to be critical of their pathway."

Okay, that's hilarious, coming from Mr. Non-Judgemental.

Leave it to Deane, Mr. Two-faced Partisan, to lecture us about walking in someone else's shoes...

Andrew

I don't think I've criticized Obama personally, or his personal life. I have been very critical of his choice of association, which I think says something about his political thinking, and I have been critical of his lack of experience. And, his extreme liberal viewpoint. That all has to do with fitness and desirability as a Presidential candidate.

You guys are getting pretty nervous with Obama's precarious position these days.

Lack of experience? He has TONS of experience. Read his book "Dreams By My Father" and you'll understand that Obama's leadership is second to none when compared to McCain. Obama is a born leader and he is 100% self made. Obama is the poster child of what it means to live the American dream. McCain grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and then married into millions.

I'm fairly confident Obama will win. Watching the electoral map, I think McCain really has his work cut out for him. There's still ALOT of time before the election and anything can happen. And to be honest, I don't want Obama to be up too big right now. I don't want any of the voters on the margins to think he's got it in the bag and get lazy about voting. The threat of McCain hanging around will motivate more Obama voters to show up on election day.

You guys are getting pretty nervous with Obama's precarious position these days.

So what if I don't think it's a slam dunk? I'd be a fool to think it's all sewn up. We've all been saying what we feel. Big deal.

By the way, Deane, for whom are you voting?

I am most definitely nervous about Obama's campaign lately. I think the kinds of character attacks McCain has been launching are hard for anyone to defend against, but it seems that Obama is following the John Kerry playbook, to some extent, and ignoring them. Obama has responded a little bit, making fun of the Paris Hilton reference in one of his speeches. But that's never going to reach the same national audience that is seeing these McCain ads replayed in the media. (Brilliant tactic - are the ads actually running anywhere besides on the news shows?)

I would like to see Obama launch a serious of ads directly taking on McCain's ads. "Do you want to talk about Paris Hilton, or do you want to talk about the economy, about the issues?" Mock McCain for his character attacks. Say it's beneath him. Have people repeating over and over again that McCain has changed...

I don't think Obama can get away with the low-blow attacks that McCain can use, because the Democratic base couldn't stomach it.

Andrew

Me too.

The take away is the low road is very potent. Not sure Obama can continue taking the high road.

He's gonna have to deal a little back, or risk losing huge.

Perhaps that base can stomach it, if they consider the impact a Republican SCOTUS will have.

There comes a point where one has to get down and dirty. No dirtier than necessary, of course. And while leaving outs, just to be fair.

But dirty enough.

It'll be really hard for Obama to tastefully run an ad about McSame calling his sweet lil' Cindy Lou the "C" word.

I bet that would alienate a lot, or most of, McJerk's female supporters.

Deane sez: "I have been very critical of his [Obama] choice of association"

This begs the question of what are YOU doing associating with this board then? Hmm?