The Disfigured Wife McCain Abandoned

[decodelighted]

I found this article on John McCain's abandonment of his first wife ... after she was disfigured by a tragic car accident HORRIFIC and revealing.

Hope it finds a WIDE audience before the general election. CHARACTER & FAMILY VALUES???? Puh-leeze.


Choice bits:

‘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.

and, from "friend" Ross Perot

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.’

 

[ksinger]

Date: 6/17/2008 10:06:15 AM
Author:decodelighted
I found this article on John McCain''s abandonment of his first wife ... after she was disfigured by a tragic car accident HORRIFIC and revealing.

Hope it finds a WIDE audience before the general election. CHARACTER & FAMILY VALUES???? Puh-leeze.


Choice bits:

‘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.

and, from ''friend'' Ross Perot

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.’

Very sad....

 

[isaku5]

Absolutely revolting behaviour on his part, and so very sad for Carol in all respects.

God Bless America. There are no more words..

 

[chrono]

You''d think the press will be digging this out months ago. So tragic and sad for her.

 

[jcrow]

 

[decodelighted]

Date: 6/17/2008 11:41:49 AM
Author: Chrono
You''d think the press will be digging this out months ago.

EXACTLY ... so interesting that it took a BRITISH newspaper to bring it to full light.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 6/17/2008 11:41:49 AM
Author: Chrono
You''d think the press will be digging this out months ago. So tragic and sad for her.

Ditto, you''d think we would have know about this ages ago. I had no clue!!!

 

[FrekeChild]

LP actually posted this very same article on the Obama thread a little while ago: very last post
And a little bit of discussion followed. I had read about it I think in 2000, when Bush''s people dug it up.

From his Wiki page:
"On July 3, 1965 McCain married Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[12] McCain adopted her two young children Douglas and Andrew.[21][19] He and Carol then had a daughter named Sidney.

...Altogether, McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was finally released from captivity on March 14, 1973.[55] McCain''s return to the United States reunited him with his wife and family. His wife Carol had suffered her own crippling ordeal during his captivity, due to an automobile accident in December 1969.[56] As a returned POW, McCain became a celebrity of sorts...

...McCain met and began an extramarital relationship with Cindy Lou Hensley, a teacher from Phoenix, Arizona, the only child of the founder of Hensley & Co.[59] His wife Carol Shepp McCain accepted a divorce in February of 1980,[57] effective in April of 1980.[21] The settlement included two houses, and financial support for her ongoing medical treatments for injuries resulting from the 1969 car accident; they would remain on good terms.[59] McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980.[12] John and Cindy McCain entered into a prenuptial agreement that keeps most of her family''s assets under her name;[62] they would always keep their finances apart and file separate income tax returns."

Honestly, I find that whole situation to be disgusting.

 

[HollyS]

Neither candidate has a half ounce of character.



I always knew I didn''t like him. Creep.

 

[AGBF]

Several months ago in, "The New York Times" I read an article about John McCain's relationship with his children that discussed his divorce and the bitterness of the children from his first marriage about that divorce and his subsequent remarriage. There was only an allusion to the what had happened to the first Mrs. McCain, however. The newspaper did not delve into her accident or disfigurement. This is news to me.


Deborah

 

[AGBF]

Date: 6/17/2008 1:20:32 PM

Author: AGBF


Several months ago in, ''The New York Times'' I read an article about John McCain''s relationship with his children that discussed his divorce and the bitterness of the children from his first marriage about that divorce and his subsequent remarriage. There was only an allusion to the what had happened to the first Mrs. McCain, however.

The article mentioned above had a photograph of the first Mrs. McCain greeting her husband when he was released from the POW camp where he had been held during the Vienam War. It also had one of the second Mrs. McCain. The second Mrs. McCain looked young and slim and was blonde with a short haircut. The first Mrs. McCain was heavy, ungainly. She looked as if she had suffered through the war and her husband''s imprisonment. I never would have guessed she was once a model, although it makes perfect sense that John McCain would only choose beautiful, young women as mates. And I did not know that she had suffered an accident as well as her husband''s imprisonment. The pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place, however....


Deborah

 

[musey]

Date: 6/17/2008 1:09:50 PM
Author: HollyS
Neither candidate has a half ounce of character.

This seems to be how most people feel at each and every election.

This time, I disagree. After quite a bit of research into Obama, I find him to be a man of great character. McCain I obviously question

 

[AGBF]

I have been looking for a picture of a youthful Carol McCain, so far to no avail. I did find a wedding photo of John and Cindy, however. I am unsure whether this link will work. It appears terribly long!


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.esoterically.net/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/mcain_cindy_john.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.esoterically.net/weblog/2008/02/14/mccains-family-values/&h=480&w=379&sz=25&hl=en&start=30&tbnid=0XiJdwXgpy77wM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=102&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcarol%2Bmccain%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN



Deborah

 

[AGBF]

This piece argues that John McCain has so far gotten away with his scurrilous behavior because Carol McCain refused to villify the father of her children. If this is so, it makes her one of the most remarkable women ever to have walked the earth!


"Different hero, different war

John McCain's first wife won't say a harsh word about the man who dumped her. Is she a spineless wimp or a quiet hero?

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Jennifer Foote Sweeney

With a great deal of restraint and not a trace of opinion, the New York Times last week reported details of what writer Nicholas Kristof calls 'an awkward time' in John McCain's life. The story, related in delightfully quaint language, managed to be fairly astonishing regardless of one's feelings about the Republican presidential candidate whose most familiar handle is that of 'war hero.'

It seems that McCain, who had once revealed to fellow prisoners of war in Vietnam that he wanted to be president, was restless in 1979. As Navy liaison to the Senate, he didn't have the career momentum he had counted on to propel him into an admiralty and on to the White House. He was 42, mired in stifling ordinariness. (Civilians call it "midlife crisis.")

But McCain was making bold career moves on the home front, hotly pursuing a 25-year-old blond from a wealthy Arizona family -- while married. Carol, his wife at the time, had once been quite a babe herself apparently, until a near-fatal car accident (while her husband was in Vietnam) left her 4 inches shorter, overweight and on crutches. The couple had three children, whom Carol cared for alone while her husband was in Vietnamese prisons.

McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased.

The story is compelling -- and repellent -- for a lot of reasons. And it raises some familiar questions. We have to wonder why Americans are able to excoriate a presidential candidate (or president) who cheats on his wife but accept one who did the same thing with the concentration and energy of a military strategist. Is it because McCain didn't get caught? Is it because he married his mistress? At this point, after much navel- and penis-gazing, it seems like a moot question, if only for reasons of sheer exhaustion.

The real riddle in that New York Times story, and in the life of John McCain, is his ex-wife's apparent acceptance of his actions and her continuing support. Says Kristof, "No candidate could be luckier in his choice of an ex-wife than Sen. McCain, and he must be the only politician around who could cheat on his wife and divorce her and still get her support and her campaign contributions today."

It is mysterious and yet incredibly important to McCain's legend. Even the people who might have felt some outrage while reading about McCain's shenanigans were probably mollified by the fact that his ex-wife seems to be eternally supportive, even cheerful, after experiencing such incredible cruelty. It becomes very easy to forgive McCain once his wife has: Heck, if it's OK with her, it's OK with me! The whiff of impropriety, the stench of character flaw is suddenly removed. O lucky man!

I was not prepared to vilify the magnanimous homewrecker after learning of his "awkward time." Like a lot of voters, I choose to focus on the issues. But I could not help being fascinated by Carol McCain. What is up with her? And then it occurred to me that what John McCain has benefited from here is the same reward enjoyed by ex-husbands everywhere in the aftermath of bad behavior and take-no-prisoners divorce when the person they are dumping and dumping on is a mother. In particular, a mother who adores her children and is painfully aware of conventional divorce wisdom that says never, ever criticize the departing dad in front of his children. It is an act of maternal suicide.

How many women do you know who willfully, in public and even in private, refuse to say an unkind word about the father of their children after divorce? I know many. They are all well-versed in the terrible damage that dissing daddy can do to children, who are fiercely resistant to any information that puts their father in an unflattering light. They also know that a child's reaction to this sort of information is often anger, and a distancing from mom, who covets her relationship with her children even more in the wake of abandonment.

The constant tongue-biting, the squelching of the truth, the careful avoidance of history can be brutal and is, in many ways, heroic. And yet it is mostly unsung, sometimes completely undetected. I suspect that many of those who read about McCain's "troubled period" (don't you love the New York Times?) will assume that Carol McCain is some kind of ditsy or emotionless punching bag without the good sense to hate her husband. They might assume that she somehow deserved to be humiliated and left to eat her husband's dust as he raced to claim his just reward.

How many will guess that Carol McCain is quite possibly a hero of a different kind of war? How many will read between the lines of her exalted ex-husband's legend and decide that she is simply one of the most courageous examples of a wounded mother who has loved and protected her children at all costs?"
salon.com | March 6, 2000



The link to the above article did not work.




Deborah

 

[FrekeChild]

Yikes. I just found this while looking for pictures of his wife before her accident. link

I was appalled at his comment about Chelsea Clinton...

 

[gwendolyn]

Wow. That's unbelievably repugnant. Why doesn't CNN take a story like THIS and run it again and again until everyone's sick of it? Sure, we can beat Howard Dean to death over a microphone mishap, but a different presidential hopeful leaves his crippled wife for a young beauty queen and the crickets chirp? Disgusting.

 

[MoonWater]

Date: 6/17/2008 2:20:23 PM
Author: FrekeChild
Yikes. I just found this while looking for pictures of his wife before her accident. link

I was appalled at his comment about Chelsea Clinton...

I remember learning of his comment about Chelsea months ago. I found it odd that Hillary spoke of McCain as a friend.

 

[ladypirate]

I said it before and I''ll say it again--this man is a creep.

I mean, how many politicians can say to their wives "At least I don''t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c***" and not get slammed for it? I don''t understand how people actually think he has character.

 

[ksinger]

Date: 6/17/2008 2:20:23 PM
Author: FrekeChild
Yikes. I just found this while looking for pictures of his wife before her accident. link

I was appalled at his comment about Chelsea Clinton...

Going on the assumption that this stuff is true...all I can say is

. Stances (or lack of) on the economy and the war aside, as a woman I can only detest a man who would talk like this...

 

[AGBF]

Date: 6/17/2008 2:20:23 PM

Author: FrekeChild

I was appalled at his comment about Chelsea Clinton...

Yes, that is an oldie....

" In 1998, McCain was chastised for reportedly making an off-color joke at a Republican fundraiser about President Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, saying “Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

Quite an officer and a gentleman, isn't he? Making fun of the child of a president for her looks. I would say that he doesn't exemplify the Amercan values I hold. One of the values I cherish is kindness. I also do not believe in blaming people for things, like their looks, over which they have no control. I also believe that beauty is skin deep. I also believe that all children are precious. I could go on and on, but I think that Mr. McCain and I would never, ever come close to understanding each other.


Deborah

 

[decodelighted]

Carol Shepp was a swimsuit model before marrying John McCain. And, as the article said, SHE was the woman he dreamed of during his captivity. SHE was the one he was desperate to come home to. And SHE was so compassionate in her time of need that she asked that news of her injuries be kept from John McCain while he was imprisoned ... so he wouldn''t be worried about HER, or lose hope & will to survive.

And then she was cheated on, publicily humiliated & thrown over for a rich "new model" who could finance his political aspirations.

Re: the Chelsea Clinton commments & calling his New Wife the "C" word in public ... his misogyny knows no bounds.

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 6/17/2008 2:10:17 PM
Author: AGBF
It is mysterious and yet incredibly important to McCain's legend. Even the people who might have felt some outrage while reading about McCain's shenanigans were probably mollified by the fact that his ex-wife seems to be eternally supportive, even cheerful, after experiencing such incredible cruelty. It becomes very easy to forgive McCain once his wife has: Heck, if it's OK with her, it's OK with me! The whiff of impropriety, the stench of character flaw is suddenly removed. O lucky man!

Yeesh. I think that everyone who painted Clinton with the red "A" needs to look closer at McCain.

 

[FrekeChild]

What I think about his Chelsea comment is that it''s kind of funny now, because I think she has blossomed since growing out of that awkward stage. She is actually quite attractive now IMHO. (Taming the hair had a lot to do with it!)

But seriously. Absolutely UNCALLED for. Did he not have any compassion for a CHILD or common sense that these comments he''s made-and there are a lot of them-would hurt him in his career aspirations?

 

[AGBF]

This is called, "McCain the Cad: A Study in Republican Hypocrisy" and was written by a former Republican and evangelica insider. Here is an excerpt:

"Republicans have developed a nasty habit of turning a blind eye to sins that might put them in a bad light. This double standard reaches a new zenith with the right wing/evangelical embrace of McCain. Caligula is in bed with the Church Lady, and the Church Lady is pretending to like it.

If they vote for Senator McCain the evangelical/conservative/Republican base is going to have to reach for a new level of hypocrisy. So are honorable military men and women voters.

In McCain's candidacy the folks who have driven American politics to the sanctimonious moralistic right for 30 years are about to be hoisted on their own petard. As for the military vote, a glaring chunk of McCain's life -- after Vietnam -- is the opposite of honorable.

I am a former life-long Republican, a former evangelical right wing leader. I'm also the proud father of a Marine. In the 70s and 80s, along with my late father Francis Schaeffer, I was a founding instigator of the religious right. I re-registered as an independent out of disgust with Rove, Bush et al. Today I am a dedicated Obama supporter.

It is as a former insider's insider -- I once labored with Jack Kemp, C. Everett Koop and Gary Bauer, the Bush family and the Fords et al., to get evangelicals to vote Republican--that I note that according to evangelical theology and right wing morality, McCain is virtually in a class of his own when it comes to bad behavior. He makes Bill Clinton's moral lapses look benign by comparison.

Here are some well known -- and undisputed -- McCain facts presented by Sharon Churcher (Daily Mail June 8 'The Wife Of US Republican John McCain Callously Left Behind.') ".

To read more, see the link below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/mccain-the-cad-a-study-in_b_106286.html


Deborah

 

[MoonWater]

It's not just his lack of character I'm worried about...

The Real McCain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI

The Real McCain 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEtZlR3zp4c

Let's talk Economics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcdLO3jKkPo&feature=related

 

[FrekeChild]

Dang it guys! I''m supposed to be doing homework!

(Moon-talking about Lenski and his Theory of Inequality now)

 

[ladypirate]

Date: 6/17/2008 3:14:50 PM
Author: FrekeChild
Dang it guys! I'm supposed to be doing homework!

(Moon-talking about Lenski and his Theory of Inequality now)

Is that like moon-walking?

 

[AGBF]

Date: 6/17/2008 2:47:41 PM

Author: FrekeChild

What I think about his Chelsea comment is that it''s kind of funny now, because I think she has blossomed since growing out of that awkward stage. She is actually quite attractive now IMHO. (Taming the hair had a lot to do with it!)

Freke, I know that you wrote that you did not think it was right of Mr. McCain to say what he did, but I still choke on the idea that what he said was funny. In my opinion it isn''t funny. If Chelsea had been a baby swan that Mr. McCain, in his ignorance, mistook for an ugly duckling the swan would have grown up and Mr. McCain would have been shown up as an ignoramus who couldn''t tell one kind of bird from another. He would have been shown to be stupid and ridiculous. Swans do not have feelings, however. At least, I do not think they are affected by how they are portrayed in the media!

Chelsea Clinton had to live through Mr. McCain''s name-calling, though, and we all know that she is bright enough to read the newspapers. Mr. McCain is older than she is. He is older than her father is. A man her father''s age should have been protective of her; he should not have acted like a school yard bully and he should not have had to be told how to behave by his handlers!



Deborah

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 6/17/2008 3:25:59 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 6/17/2008 2:47:41 PM

Author: FrekeChild

What I think about his Chelsea comment is that it's kind of funny now, because I think she has blossomed since growing out of that awkward stage. She is actually quite attractive now IMHO. (Taming the hair had a lot to do with it!)

Freke, I know that you wrote that you did not think it was right of Mr. McCain to say what he did, but I still choke on the idea that what he said was funny. In my opinion it isn't funny. If Chelsea had been a baby swan that Mr. McCain, in his ignorance, mistook for an ugly duckling the swan would have grown up and Mr. McCain would have been shown up as an ignoramus who couldn't tell one kind of bird from another. He would have been shown to be stupid and ridiculous. Swans do not have feelings, however. At least, I do not think they are affected by how they are portrayed in the media!

Chelsea Clinton had to live through Mr. McCain's name-calling, though, and we all know that she is bright enough to read the newspapers. Mr. McCain is older than she is. He is older than her father is. A man her father's age should have been protective of her; he should not have acted like a school yard bully and he should not have had to be told how to behave by his handlers!

Deborah

Ooo. I should have said ironic. Edit- funny=ironic. No it isn't funny. It's detestable. Hence, the rest of my post, "But seriously. Absolutely UNCALLED for. Did he not have any compassion for a CHILD or common sense that these comments he's made-and there are a lot of them-would hurt him in his career aspirations?"
Especially the part in bold.

And you're totally right about McCain and what his actions should have been. Can you imagine the words that would have come out of his mouth if someone had said something like that about his daughter(s)? I mean, he called Cindy a c*** for her teasing him about his hair thinning, imagine if someone truly attacked him or his loved ones in that manner.

 

[movie zombie]

Date: 6/17/2008 3:25:59 PM
Author: AGBF

Date: 6/17/2008 2:47:41 PM

Author: FrekeChild

What I think about his Chelsea comment is that it''s kind of funny now, because I think she has blossomed since growing out of that awkward stage. She is actually quite attractive now IMHO. (Taming the hair had a lot to do with it!)

Freke, I know that you wrote that you did not think it was right of Mr. McCain to say what he did, but I still choke on the idea that what he said was funny. In my opinion it isn''t funny. If Chelsea had been a baby swan that Mr. McCain, in his ignorance, mistook for an ugly duckling the swan would have grown up and Mr. McCain would have been shown up as an ignoramus who couldn''t tell one kind of bird from another. He would have been shown to be stupid and ridiculous. Swans do not have feelings, however. At least, I do not think they are affected by how they are portrayed in the media!

Chelsea Clinton had to live through Mr. McCain''s name-calling, though, and we all know that she is bright enough to read the newspapers. Mr. McCain is older than she is. He is older than her father is. A man her father''s age should have been protective of her; he should not have acted like a school yard bully and he should not have had to be told how to behave by his handlers!



Deborah

+1.
to go after a child shows the man has no moral fiber. it was one thing to dislike the clintons and another to disparage a teenager for his own benefit. family values have certainly changed for the worse.

movie zombie