Telling the Truth about McCain's Marriage to Cindy

[livedemocarticordie]

Everyone here (all erudite and on it... LOL) has read about this. BUT I was surprised to find it front and center in my Washington Post today this morning, including the information about exactly when he applied for a marriage license and got his divorce and lying to Larry King. Some of the details I did not know. The internet COMMENT section at the Post has been crashing on the piece.
I live in Washington, and I have to say between this article and the local stations looping the obnoxious comment his brother made about Northeern Virginia voters all being communists, this cannot help his chances in VA.

The Separate Peace of John And Carol
In the Demise of His First Marriage, John McCain's Life Seems to Have Found a New Path

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 6, 2008; C01



In early 1980, John McCain was a man in transition -- and in a hurry.

Nine months earlier, at a cocktail reception in Hawaii, he met a glamorous young heiress named Cindy Lou Hensley and, by all accounts, fell instantly in love. McCain spent months flying from Washington to Arizona pursuing this new relationship. Soon, the 43-year-old naval attache and his 25-year-old sweetheart were engaged.

There was only one complication: McCain was still married.

Carol Shepp McCain, then 42, had endured much in more than 14 years of marriage to John. She had raised their three young children alone while her husband languished in a North Vietnamese prison camp for 5 1/2 years. Her tribulations grew immeasurably after a near-fatal car accident that immobilized her for months and left her scarred for life. Despite their reunion and physical rehabilitation, by the late 1970s the McCains' marriage had begun to crack, as John engaged in what he later termed "dalliances" with other women.

Now it was being torn apart by his relationship with Cindy Hensley. McCain didn't hesitate in bringing his marriage to a swift end.

According to public records, he and Cindy received a marriage license in Maricopa County, Ariz., in early March 1980, four weeks before his divorce from Carol was final. A judge in Florida dissolved the McCains' marriage April 2, entering a default judgment after Carol failed to respond to three court summonses. John and Cindy were wed six weeks later, on May 17.

This rapid-fire sequence of events raises a question about John McCain's path to the White House: Would he be where he is today had he not changed his life, and his wife, when he did?................
Over the years, when the subject of his divorce has come up, McCain has responded with contrition and remorse, blaming himself for the marriage's failure. During a campaign forum in August, he called the end of his first marriage "my greatest moral failure."

But McCain has also given inconsistent accounts of what happened to the relationship. In an interview with Larry King on CNN in 2002, for example, McCain spoke about his first meeting with Cindy, describing his excitement...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/05/AR2008100502589.html?hpid=topnews