John McCain's First Wife Speaks Out!

[Heather MC]

Times UK | June 9, 2008 09:42 AM



The UK Times scores the first interview with John McCain's first wife in the 2008 campaign season:
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 5ft4in 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.

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.

Read the full article here. Last week, McCain was pressed on his marital infidelities at a town hall meeting -- watch video and read an account here.

Read the whole story here.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. Wow.

[w13rd0]

2. Mmmm...

...those Republicans and their family values.

They value their families, as long as those families benefit them. Spouse sick, crippled, dying, not photogenic, not wealthy? Upgrade!

[Heather MC]

8. What a Jerk!

[alphafemale]

3. Here's a pic showing Carol after McCain's release. She still looks like a beauty to me.

McCain is shallow sac of shit.

[EFerrari]

4. What a sad story.

It's not going to go over very well with married women voters.

[Heather MC]

7. I am a married woman and this is not going over well with me!

I keep hearing these stories of how he treats the women closest to him in his life and then I read about his voting record for woman issues. and I have to ask, how can any woman consider this man the alternative vote to Hillary?

Then I watch Obama with his wife. I love the way he never takes his hands off her when they are together, He loves and respects his wife, He was raised by woman, and he has two beautiful daughters God has trusted him to raise as beautiful smart strong women, and I think this guy is who we ladies need!

[pnorman]

5. I cast my first vote in 1952, for Adlai Stevenson. (Democratic Party)

A very effective meme against him then was: "do you want to see a DIVORCED man in the White House?" WHAT would they make of this CREEP? Of note: It was Ronny Reagan who was this Nation's first divorced President!

pnorman

[RichardRay]

6. I think it's a little bit sad when we have to put the qualifier

'Democratic Party' behind the name of Adlai Stevenson. Not a dis on you, pnorman, I've had a few exchanges on this very board with people who didn't know who or what he was. It's just sort of sad...

[Alexander]

36. For the record, I'm 24 and I know exactly who Adlai Stevenson was.

Not only as the grandson of Grover Cleveland's vice-president, Governor of Illinois and two-time Democratic nominee against Eisenhower, but also Ambassador to the UN during the Missile Crisis and source of the famous "Don't wait for the translation, answer me!" exchange with Ambassador Zorin.

[RichardRay]

39. That makes me very happy (and I'm serious when I say that!)

My first political awareness was of Adlai Stevenson. My mother (86 now) is of the opinion that we have this year the opportunity to head in the direction that Adlai would have taken us, at least as far as foreign policy is concerned.

Another famouse Adlai Stevenson line:

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

[Hepburn]

9. I read about Ross Perot paying her medical bills...

...did McCain skip out on this?

:shrug:

[geek_sabre]

11. He paid for it while he was a POW... he wasn't told of her accident while there

and at any rate, its hard to wire money while being held captive. As part of the divorce settlement, McCain pays for her medical care for the rest of her life.

[Major Hogwash]

41. You probably didn't know this yet, but we can read the fucking article for ourselves.

You don't need to tell us he pays for her medical care for the rest of her life.
She could've went on medicare or medicaid - something Johnny boy doesn't believe in.

[geek_sabre]

10. A lot, a lot (a lot) of marriages ended after Vietnam.

Largely as a result of PTSD. Divorce rates are significantly higher among combat vets than the general population (+60% by some studies). I'm not sure this is a good attack point on John McCain. Being held prisoner and tortured for 5 years will change your perspective on life a lot. It is impossible to come out of those circumstances an reenter your life like nothing happened. As long as his ex-wife doesn't have any hard feelings about the split, I don't think this really matters. I would think divorce is preferable to a loveless marriage for the sake of marriage, or because you feel guilty about her "disfigurement."

Now, if he'd had 2+ marriages since and was still playing the field, there would be a valid argument about his "womanizing" ways.

[Liberal Dose]

14. The post isn't about his "womanizing"

It's about his hypocrisy, and the hypocrisy of the entire GOP when it comes to family values.
:D

[Heather MC]

18. If I am understanding you

You think McCain Suffered from PTSD, of course that would make sense considering what happended to him. I have a question, did he get help for this. It is a mental issue, is he still umm "mental"?
Is he mentally fit to be president?

I appreciate your point about he has only had one wife since his divorce, but it was 1 month after their divorce which means, he had developed a stable relationship with a married woman, before he left his wife.

If he wanted to move on, why put her through that at all, why not leave before he started cheating.
Cheating begins mentally before it manifest itself physically. He could have left before it began, with dignity for both of them. I think he waited till he was sure he had a sure thing with Cindy, before he decided to leave his wife. It's a technique I call "keeping one in the pocket". She maybe publically saying she is "Ok" with it now, let's face it holding on to that kind of anger for this long is not good for your health.

But imagine what he put his wife through in the days leading up to their divorce. The Obvious lies, the lack of affection, the stress she had to endure, I am sure she knew he was cheating, most spouses know, men and woman when something changes. And he clearly developed feelings for another woman. I wonder how long this went on before the divorce. To me when you put someone through that, it's a form of Mental abuse!
And for that he is scum in my book

[geek_sabre]

27. My great uncle went through a very painful divorce after Vietnam

Its not that he was "mental," did not suffer from PTSD, but did sustain some injuries. He never talked about his experience there much, but from what my mother recalls, he was an extremely different person afterwards. Not in a bad way, not more cold or callous, but different. He didn't enjoy hobbies that he did before, even stopped liking food he had liked before. I suppose the experience of seeing death, causing death, living in such a stressful environment for so long makes you see the world in a different way. He tried to stay in the marriage for 6 years, but ultimately, both him and my great aunt had fallen out of love, and divorced (neither remarried).

Based on wiki, McCain met Cindy a year before they married. A NYT article about it suggests that McCain and Carol had worked at the marriage for years before this point. While it is tempting to put yourself in that situation, it is unfair. You can't possibly know the circumstances of their marriage, you can't possibly know the state of their marriage before he left (they were married a little over a year before he deployed), you can't know what went on while he was a POW, you can't know whether he or she felt when he returned. War is devastating to families, and 5 years of uncertainty must have been worse. Statistically, it is likely that they would have split even without her accident. It is very possible that divorce is the best thing that could have happened. He is now in a stable relationship, and on good terms with his ex-wife and all of his kids.

If McCain had done the same thing as a civilian, was never a POW, the story might have legs among fence voters. But it really won't impact his base much at all.

[Heather MC]

29. I am going to have to repectfully disagree with you

First of all in the case of your great uncle, it's clear that this man was in great pain, and the fact the they never married in IMO is proof that they really loved each other, they just never got the help the proper help they both needed to work out their marriage and his issues. In there story, based on what you told me they left to spare each other pain, that's love. painful unfair love but it's love.

But it doesn't compare to McCain, he was able to show enough affection for another woman to get her to leave her husband an marry him. That, again IMO, is a sign of someone who wanted to get out of a hard situation, hard for him, that's selffish. I am not suggesting he sould have stayed for hte sake of staying, but leave before you cheat. It's was in his heart to be unfaithful, before he actually was. Contary to the popular saying "it just happened" Infidelity never "just happens". You have to be a willing participant, and they has to be a seed of willingness there long before it takes place.

From your personal perspective I guess this type of behavior is justified and ok, I don't know who you are or if you are married, but I will pray for who ever your spouse is, because it's clear, cheating is not something the bothers you. But you go ask any person man or woman who has ever had someone do this to them, and see how they feel about it. You may be surprized at he response.

[redqueen]

20. It matters when their voters put so much stock in "family values".

Divorce, then a month later, you're remarried?

Don't call it 'womanizing' if you don't want to... whatever you label it... it is sickening.

[jeffrey_X]

12. Will the U.S. press run with this or not?

eom

[ecstatic]

13. I hope so. It's telling, and I'm sick of people who say we should leave these types

of stories alone. They wouldn't hesitate to use it against Obama. I want us to win dammit I've waited long enough!

[roguevalley]

32. if 527's do, they will. I personally think Obama is being extra tough

on McCain now to provoke him to an outburst, which some people say he is already doing now.

[Yotun]

15. Frankly I couldn't care less, and don't like this line of attack

A person is allowed to do whatever the hell he or she wants with their personal life, and nobody should be forced to stay in a marriage when its obviously not working out for them. I don't know the details of the guys personal life and how his marriage was going, or how he felt about Cindy at the time, and frankly, I don't care to know. If that's how he felt, good for him to go with it.

I don't care about McCain romantic life, his personal life, or if he's a womanizer or not, and I frankly don't care about so called 'family values'... and really, I think its insulting to try to judge a man's personal attitudes by summing up a few decades of his life and relationships with two women in a couple of paragraphs. Even so, a person could be a wonderful president, and have no 'moral family values'.

What I care is the direction McCain wants to take the country to, and his policies. That's what I don't like, that's why I can't support him, that's why I support Obama, and this 'He's so immorally evil' thing just sounds stupid to me.

[B Calm]

22. The direction McCain wants to take the country to, and his policies have

a starkly outward similar appearance to his morality!

[redqueen]

23. Sure... it's a free country. But LOTS of their voters are "family values" types.

Do you want to defeat Old John McCain or not?

[mrreowwr_kittty]

24. The problem is that guys like McCain will run on "family values"

They will claim that they alone can be entrusted with the morals of society, while they themselves cannnot control their base urges. They will promote legislation depriving women of reproductive freedom while arranging abortions for the women in their own lives (Bob Barr). They will impeach a sitting President for a consensual affair while cheating on their own spouses (Gingrich). They will inveigh against homosexuality and attempt to deny LGBT people equality while having illicit trysts in airport bathrooms with other men (Larry Craig). Just to name a few. And now we have McCain who will, no doubt, give an impassioned speech at the RNC Convention about "Judeo-Christian ethics" and "strengthening families" or some hogwash, while his own profligate past is unmentioned.

[Heather MC]

25. This goes hand in hand with his horrible history of woman's issues

Also it's important for all those female Hillary supporters who say they will vote for McCain,
Not talking about DU.

But I believe that's why this is important. When you compare his history of woman's issues and his history with the women in his personal life. ie, cheating in his first wife, calling his second wife a "trollop" and a "cunt". You can see a very ugly pattern forming, that would be detrimental for women in this country if he is elected president!

[Yotun]

16. Double post nt

[Forkboy]

17. Well, we already knew he was a shitheel.

I hope more people see him for what he is.

[polichick]

19. Yeah, but he's a "patriotic" war hero! lol

[madrchsod]

21. barry goldwater pretty much hated johnny boy....

i guess his first wife is more charitable

[Fleshdancer]

26. The reason why this story bothers me....

War is hell on the families of soldiers. This woman lived with the fear of her husband's torture and possible death while taking on the role of a single mom to three kids and then struggled with her own physical pain and medical problems. As a married person myself, I don't understand walking away from someone like that.

I know military life is hard on marriages and spending that many years apart is bound to create problems. Getting divorced and remarrying one month later doesn't give me a lot of confidence that he really tried though. He shows 10 times more devotion to this war than he did for his wedding vows. Seems odd.

[geek_sabre]

28. So..

Its more loving to stay in a marriage with someone you do no longer love (for whatever reason, for sake of this argument) out of guilt, than to walk away? Read up on some studies on divorce rates among combat vets. While it may seem like a simple answer for you, who (presumably) have never seen combat, and your spouse who (presumably) has never seen combat, it is not quite as simple as walking in the door, shouting "honey, I'm home," and continuing your life as if nothing happened. Both of them probably changed significantly because of their experiences, and it likely would not have worked out whether or not she had had an accident.

McCain and Carol were together 6 years after he was released, and by all accounts, they worked at it the whole time with some slipups. You can question his motives for marrying Cindy so soon, but I've known people who courted for decades whose marriages haven't lasted as long as Cindy and John McCain's.

[gauguin57]

30. Yes, Cindy ... whom he calls the "c-word" in front of other people. Yuck,

And I do think it says something about Johnny's character that 42-year-old John, who had been telling friends how he wanted to run for office (but didn't have the money to do so) publicly chased wealthy Cindy, 25, all over the country and had an affair with her (while still married to Carol -- and not separated) ... then dumped his wife and immediately married Cindy, and then used her money right away to finance his first congressional campaign.

Yes, his sex life is his business. But knowing all this, it does say something about his character (especially if he portrays himself as the family-values candidate).

Not to mention the whole C-word thing. If my husband called me the c-word in front of his staff, I'd break his f***in' jaw.

[Fleshdancer]

31. Cindy, is that you??

:rofl:

You're right, McCain is just super swell and a perfect husband! No really, you have me convinced. :eyes:

As for my background (since you assume so much about me), both my parents were in the army, both grandfathers, uncle, and my brother returned from his fourth deployment earlier this year. Yes, I know all about divorce statistics in the military but I also know that marriages can and have worked through the hardest of circumstances. Like I said, he's more devoted to this war than he was to his first wife. I don't find that very honorable and, quite frankly, I don't have to.

[roguevalley]

33. no, its more loving to divorce and then screw around. he's not

been faithful ever.

[Major Hogwash]

40. That's because McCain is nearly insane.

If you consider the fact that he bragged about bucking the system for 25 years, calling himself a maverick, only to morph into Bush mini-me this year, you have to consider his mental well-being.

McCain has flip-flopped on almost evry single political issue there is.
He should be known as "the Senator without a spine" because he has caved into every single lobbying group that he used to rail about.

McCain's insane attitude toward war is why a lot of Republicans are pissed off today.
Even they know the war is lost.

[PresidentObama]

34. This is the same man who admitted to lying for personal ambitions.

Wow. What an asshole.

[Jester Messiah]

35. We're better than this.

We can win against this man and his tired, wrong-headed ideology without bringing his personal affairs into it. I know the Republicans will stop at nothing and leave no muck un-thrown, but we're better than that. Let's be the change we want to see, huh?

[Eurobabe]

38. but they are not.

never forget it.

[Jester Messiah]

42. So?

If the only way to beat the pubs is to be the pubs, then what's the point?

[underpants]

37. Va Beach is "a faded seaside resort " ????

Oh man all those Republicans at the Beach are NOT going to like that ...at all