by Katie Fretland
In the June 30 issue of Newsweek, journalist Holly Bailey goes in search of the "real" Cindy McCain.
The potential First Lady offers the magazine a glimpse into her 28-year marriage to the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Many years were spent apart, with her husband on Capitol Hill while she raised their children in Arizona.
"It was almost like a deployment," Cindy told Newsweek. "What I told the kids from the time they were little is that their dad was deployed and serving our country in Washington."
McCain, 54, was far from her husband during trying times, Bailey reports, including two of three miscarriages, an addiction to painkillers and a debilitating stroke.
"Cindy says she doesn't resent the time she has spent without her husband. It was her choice to stay in Arizona while he rose in Washington, and she says she knew when she married him that he was always going to 'put country first,' Bailey writes.
Recent polling shows that McCain is the lesser known of the candidates' wives. The public tends to hear more news about Michelle Obama, wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
McCain has set out to show the public she is not a "Stepford wife," Bailey reports. The heiress is also chairman to the beer business her father started, an amateur pilot and she knows how to drive a race car. She recently traveled to Vietnam in support of a children's charity, Operation Smile.
To hear Bailey talk about the story of Cindy McCain, click here.
To read the full Newsweek article, click here.
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Comments
Cindy didn't even bother to pay her taxes for 4 yrs........4 friggin years.....Imagine if one of us didn't pay our taxes.
Newsweek is set to publish a highly embarrassing report on Sen. John McCain, revealing that the McCains have failed to pay taxes on their beach-front condo in La Jolla, California, for the last four years and are currently in default, The Huffington Post has learned.
Under California law, once a residential property is in default for five years, it can be sold at a tax sale to recover the unpaid taxes for the taxpayers.
The McCains own at least seven homes through a variety of trusts and corporations controlled by Cindy McCain.
UPDATE: Newsweek's story is now online. The report notes that the McCains paid the bulk of their back taxes yesterday, but continue to owe additional taxes:
When you're poor, it can be hard to pay the bills. When you're rich, it's hard to keep track of all the bills that need paying. It's a lesson Cindy McCain learned the hard way when NEWSWEEK raised questions about an overdue property-tax bill on a La Jolla, Calif., property owned by a trust that she oversees. Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona. [...]
Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: "The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due."
Cindy is a big fake, she was a drug addict who stole from her charity for her drug addiction, not exactly a role model for anyone
Posted by: Anonymous | June 29, 2008 7:24 AM
I read the Newsweek story and was really quite touched by it. Although Mrs. McCain isn't more perfect than anyone else is, she is a class act. I know I'll never use the term Stepford Wife in conjunction with Mrs. McCain ever again.
I suppose I'm asking too much though for people to agree that the candidates and their wives are mostly decent, honorable people trying to do their best for their country.
Let's debate policy and leave the personal attacks out of it.
Posted by: Doug "Hussein" Zook | June 29, 2008 7:59 AM
When do they do the piece about the FIRST mrs. mccain? I mean the one who stuck by him when he was a POW? The one he ditched for Cindy?
No she's no Stepford wife. She's a grown up Paris Hilton.
Posted by: athena | June 29, 2008 1:09 PM
I'm getting tired of all the hype that's put out by the politicians... I'd like to hear at least one intelligent statement made by either this woman or her husband. Wouldn't you? I'm reluctant to vote for another stupid politician to pile on top of the ones already in Washington. Zut.
Posted by: Irene | June 29, 2008 6:37 PM
She's a charmer alright.
She stole large amounts of drugs from her volunteer organization some years back (she was and perhaps still is addicted), and got off, with hubby's help, with hardly a smack on the hand.
She dated a married man whose wife had waited for him while he was in Vietnam but was then horribly disfigured in a car accident. Then she married him after he dumped the poor wife.
She is famously tight with a dime even though she's worth about three hundred million.
She's had so much plastic surgery and other cosmetic treatments, she really is beginning to resemble the living dead.
Posted by: John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada | June 30, 2008 9:45 AM
Wow. These comments amaze me. No one is by any means perfect and this woman looks to have done more good than harm in her life. Also, I personally would want someone in office that doesn't need to be bought off by lobbyists and campaign contributors. But, that's me.
As far as the comment about you have to be rich to have so much property that you don't pay your bills... hmmm.. I run a small business and things get sent to the wrong place (including taxations) every so often just from doing normal business. With much time and energy dedicated into growing the business and making sure employees have a job it's easy to miss a bill and then rectify it later. This lady paid her bill, so, again, I fail to see the shortcoming there.
I'm not a huge McCain fan overall, but I fail to see how any of the comments made against her really point out character flaws like I've seen in other candidates.
Posted by: rob | July 1, 2008 9:01 AM
What qualifications does Ariana Huffington have??? NONE, except for getting a bunch of money from her wealthy ex husband. Did she become an loyal informed American by being born and raised in Greece?
Posted by: Howard | August 21, 2008 6:44 PM
Campaigns have got to the point where noting is off limits. It apparently is true cindy abused drugs. You would think a party that preaches family values would cut a break to outhers.
Posted by: geek | November 1, 2008 11:43 PM