Cindy McCain's Husband -- Was John MIA or AWOL?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

Recent reports on John McCain's wife raise more questions about the candidate than about her, if you read between the lines. What kind of life partner has John been? How will women voters judge him?

^{Art Streiber for Newsweek (Photo of Cindy)}

Suddenly everyone is taking an interest the presidential candidates' wives. Newsweek, for example, published an intriguing profile of John McCain's wife Cindy in its June 30 issue.

In a nutshell, Cindy comes across quite well -- as a maverick and independent operator in her own right. She flies planes, heads a large company, adopted a needy child from Mother Teresa's orphanage. She appears as decisive, wealthy, powerful, but a woman with heart.

That contrasts starkly with what the public has seen of Cindy Hensley McCain up to this point in the campaign -- the image of a rather silent partner with a frozen smile posing on stages and navigating airport tarmacs at her husband's side. Cindy really only grabbed reporters' attention once, by contrasting her own patriotic feelings with those of Michelle Obama, whose remarks on the subject had sparked controversy. And there were some stories about her recipes.

The Newsweek profile should be read in full for all the interesting detail it fleshes out on Cindy's background and character. But this commentary has another focus.

Surprisingly, Newsweek also shed light on what kind of person John McCain might be. In telling Cindy's story, reporter Holly Bailey shows a side of John McCain that is rarely examined. It's a private portrait that many women might judge ill.

The look at Cindy McCain's life shows that she has pretty much gone it alone, while John McCain pursued his own agenda in Washington. If her husband is elected president, Cindy McCain, independent and out of sight, may prove to be more of an Eleanor Roosevelt figure than a Hillary Clinton-like partner to a president. Rather than engage in her husband's day-to-day interests and efforts, she has carved out a separate life, made her major decisions independently, and managed her homes, her children's lives, her business concerns, and her passionate charitable efforts in large measure without John's participation.

John, on the other hand, comes off less well. A series of excerpts pulled from the subtext of the report from Newsweek should make the point. The excerpts are from Newsweek, beginning with an overview:

Ambitious naval officers ... their wives work, chase after the kids and take care of the house, building lives of their own while their husbands build their careers. Cindy McCain knows what that's like. Over 28 years of her often long-distance marriage ... "It was almost like a deployment," Cindy told NEWSWEEK. ...

Cindy has sometimes likened herself to a single mother ... she has often been far away from her husband during difficult moments, including two of three miscarriages she suffered ... her husband did not notice when she became addicted to painkillers ... he was on the other side of the country when she suffered a stroke ... On her own, she learned to walk again. ...

... a largely independent life ...

Then Newsweek reviews the McCains' courtship and early days:

In 1972, Cindy left home for the University of Southern California. Her husband likes to say USC stands for "University of Spoiled Children ..."

In the spring of 1979, Cindy joined her parents on a trip to Hawaii. At a Navy cocktail party, a cocky captain came up and introduced himself. ... He was 41, but told her he was 37. Cindy was 24, but told him she was 27. By both accounts, it was love at first sight—though for McCain, it was far more complicated. He was a married father of three. His relationship with his first wife, Carol Shepp, was coming apart, and the two were separating, though he didn't divulge any of that to Cindy that first night. ...

First, McCain had to deal with his current marriage. He had met Shepp, a former fashion model, before he went to Vietnam. ... In 1969, while McCain was a POW, Shepp was nearly killed in a car accident. The wreck left her with permanent injuries. When he returned home in 1973, the two tried to make the marriage work, but they had little in common after six years apart. ... In February 1980, he filed for divorce. Little more than a month after the divorce was final, Cindy and John married in a glitzy ceremony at the Arizona Biltmore.

... The [first] marriage soured because of "John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again," [Shepp] told McCain's biographer Robert Timberg. ...

McCain adopted Arizona as his new home and soon began thinking of a fresh career. He had doubts he would ever be an admiral like his father and grandfather. Instead, he resolved to return to Washington as a congressman from Arizona. McCain worried he would be branded a carpetbagger, but his war story was compelling and the Hensley name got him access to money and connections. In January 1982, a congressional seat came open near Mesa ... Cindy bought the couple a house in the district so they could establish themselves as residents. McCain lent his campaign $169,000, money that came from Cindy's trust fund. (It was the last time Cindy would tap into her accounts to fund her husband's races, in part because of tighter ethics rules.) ...

Political life was no easy fit for the young wife. Tough challenges loomed:

Cindy struggled to be taken seriously in the capital. ... For the first time in her life, she was an outsider. She knew what people were saying behind her back. Some of her husband's own staff privately called her a trophy wife; his political opponents carped that he'd married her only for money.

... When Cindy found out she was pregnant again in early 1984, her doctors ordered her to stay off her feet and not travel. That was all the excuse she needed to leave Washington and move back to Arizona for good. Since then, she has seen her husband mostly on weekends, and travels to the capital only once or twice a year.

John McCain and other congressmen were implicated in the Keating Five scandal which was part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

... Cindy and her father had invested nearly $400,000 in a strip mall Keating owned. He had been a major contributor to McCain's campaigns and John and Cindy had vacationed at Keating's home in the Bahamas nearly 10 times, often flying down on one of Keating's private jets. McCain insisted he had paid for the use of the jet, but Cindy, in charge of the family's records, couldn't find the receipts. ... Cindy, convinced she had embarrassed her husband, was distraught. Under stress and still in pain after surgery, she began taking more of the pain pills doctors had prescribed. Soon she was addicted, taking up to 20 Percocets and Vicodins a day.

... Her husband, away in Washington most of the time, suspected nothing.

... Cindy confessed [her addiction to her mother], and says she quit the pills cold turkey that day. But she didn't tell John. "I was scared," she told NEWSWEEK. "I didn't want to disappoint him." ...

And then came John McCain's presidential aspirations:

In 1998, John raised the possibility of a run for president. ... But his wife was sickened by the thought of their lives' being picked apart even more. "No," she told him firmly. "No, no, no." ...

It was conventional wisdom that McCain would run again in 2008. Once more, he knew his first opponent would be his wife. "She had very clear misgivings about it, very clear," McCain told reporters earlier this year. One of her concerns: her health.

[In 2004] Cindy had suffered a stroke ... Cindy moved to San Diego, and rented a condo on Coronado Island. Friends looked after her sons and young Bridget. ...

[Cindy] had grown comfortable with many of the regular reporters on the McCain campaign beat earlier this year, but withdrew after The New York Times published a story questioning a relationship that her husband had with a female Washington lobbyist. (McCain said he had done nothing wrong ... Cindy said she trusted him ...)

Cindy, who couldn't get out of Washington fast enough two decades ago, now gamely—if not quite persuasively—says she would be happy to move back. Like most First Ladies, she would see more of her husband. She certainly knows how badly he wants to win, and, as she says, that makes her want it, too. Yet there is an unmistakable note of reticence: the uncertainty of a woman who has seen enough of the dark side of politics to know that she hasn't yet seen it all. "Hopefully," she says, "it will be a good experience."

In Search of Cindy McCain (Holly Bailey/Newsweek)

Newsweek set out to profile Cindy McCain and did a very good job of it. Whether it was their intent or not, what some voters -- especially women voters -- will take away from the story is that the "cocky captain" who said his vows to Cindy in 1980, has frequently been MIA or AWOL ever since. Cindy McCain has made the best of it.

* * *

Other reporting on Cindy McCain:

The Quiet Partner (nationalpost.com)

Cindy McCain: Myth vs. Reality - Bazaar.com

Cindy McCain's Soft Spot: Operation Smile (ABC)

Cindy McCain to headline fundraiser in London (AP/Yahoo)

Cindy McCain criticizes Burma (Boston Globe)

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Bookmark/Search this post with:

buzzflash | delicious | digg | technorati