Posted on 07/11/2008 6:43:44 AM PDT by K-oneTexas
What You Don't Know About Cindy McCain Will Surprise You
Floyd and Mary Beth Brown
The media lately are full of adoring pieces about Michelle Obama, but why so little about John McCain’s wife, Cindy? Of course, we can all see that she has model good looks, sparkling blue eyes, poise and confidence. But she is much more than meets the eye.
Long before she ever married John McCain in 1980, Cindy’s heart had been captured by the needs of the less fortunate, especially children. Her undergraduate degree is in Education and she has a Master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Southern California. While a student working with severely disabled children, Cindy was part of a pilot study testing Movement Therapy, now a widely used and successful treatment.
After receiving her degrees in California, Cindy returned to her home state of Arizona and began a teaching career at Agua Fria High School. While working at the school, which is located in a poor Phoenix neighborhood, she taught disabled children with special needs such as Down syndrome. The principal at the time, O.K. Fulton said, “She didn’t have to work. Her dad had lots of money, but she went beyond what the job called for.”
Not what you may expect from the heiress of one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributors, a business her father started after returning as a solider from WWII with a $10,000 loan. An only child, the former Cindy Lou Hensley, now chairman and majority owner of the company, can add successful businessperson to her resume. In addition to that, Cindy oversees a family charity that helps people in some of the poorest countries in the world receive medical care.
However, her greatest focus is on raising her four children. Meghan, 24, is college graduate; Jack, 22, is now following in the family tradition, as a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy; Jimmy, 20, recently returned from serving as a Marine in Iraq; and 16-year-old Bridgett is a high school student.
In fact, Bridgett was a recipient of Cindy’s compassion when she pulled on her heartstrings as a baby living in an orphanage in Bangladesh. Mother Teresa ran the charity Cindy was visiting and she suggested Cindy take the child with a severe cleft palate (making it nearly impossible to eat). Cindy brought Bridgett back home for surgery and the McCains adopted her. Cindy now sits on the board of Operation Smile, a group sending American doctors to repair children’s cleft palates in needy places.
"She is tireless ... When she is around these people that are underserved, that's when Cindy really shines," said Operation Smile's Vonnie Wray, who has accompanied her on trips to Vietnam, Morocco and India. In addition, Cindy is involved with several other charities including serving on the board of Halo Trust, an anti-landmine charity, and CARE.
As with everyone, Mrs. McCain is not without her share of challenges in life. In the 1980s, she suffered three miscarriages, later saying, “It was hard, but I can only view it as God’s plan.” Then, one day when lifting their young son Jimmy, Cindy suffered a ruptured disc in her spine. Subsequent back surgeries, instead of helping, brought about years of chronic pain, which in turn led to a dependence on prescription pain medications. After being confronted by her mother, Cindy stopped cold-turkey and began attending weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings, telling “Dateline” in 1999, “The best thing I’ve ever done is go into recovery and stay drug-free.”
But this is not the end of her challenges. Aside from raising four children in Arizona with a Senator for a husband often in Washington, D.C., Cindy suffered a stroke at the age of 50 partly because she had not been taking her blood pressure medication. Following the stroke, Cindy had to learn to walk again -- and fully recovered, eight months later running a half-marathon.
Did we mention she is a pilot and amateur racecar driver too?
With one son in the Navy and the other a Marine, friend Sharon Harper says this is one of the big reasons McCain supports her husband’s run for the presidency. “She simply didn’t trust that anyone else would know how to deal with the complexities of what to do about the war.”
Author Robert Timberg aptly describes Cindy as having the “good looks of a beauty queen without the shallowness that goes with the stereotype.”
As first lady, Cindy will focus on humanitarian efforts in the United States, saying her “biggest goal is to hopefully inspire more people to get involved in their communities, to focus on, as my husband has said, causes greater than themselves.”
I got it in an email but didn't know where it came from.
very impressive. I assume they are saving the facts about his children serving in the miliary until the fall campaign, because that tells you a lot about John McCain. His children are serving the country and in harms way. They are born into a millionaires life and could have pursued any lifestyle they wanted. They chose to serve.
BTTT
Plus she doesn’t hate her country.....
Information we will never hear about through MSM. It just makes obamas wife, miss harvard grad. I hate America, look like dog meat. Well, she already does, but in this case I don’t mean literally!!
Anyone who works with special needs kids is a saint.
She is an accomplished woman in her own right. She’s had real jobs - no political payoff jobs like Hillary or Michelle.
Noble & unselfish. I question if I'D do the same.
Just Cindy McCain’s ability to keep her mouth shut puts her miles ahead of the Orange Dress.
one word.....CLASS
I knew some of this stuff but - WOW! This woman rocks. Where is the MSM on Cindy? Losers. . .
Come on Cindy, get with it.
Yep. These people are the antithesis of the Kennedy degenerates.
So refreshing!
Nope, Jack is a midshipman! Cadets go to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., or to The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., or the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va.
Cindy walks the walk. Michelle talks the talk. That’s why the MSM doesn’t cover her...............
My husband is British and doesn’t really follow the news channels or pundits here. When we had layovers in DFW airport we were stuck with CNN. The first show we watched was Wolf Blitzer’s show. After a few minutes he turned to me and said is this a show for Democrats? Yeah, basically.
On the return we were forced to watch Anderson 360. They had a special on the candidates and the wives. As it started he turned to me and said “let me guess, Obamas great, McCains bad”? Yeah, pretty much. A glowing review of Michelle. Strong working mother. Leader. Confident. Blah, blah, blah. Other than finding out that Cindy got her degree in Special Education, it was basically, Cindy the drug addict. Cindy the heiress. Etc., Etc.
mega dittos!
However, just wait until the MSM deluges us with stories about the pain killer problems she had a few years back.
I predict it will be a “Keating Five/Pill Popper” storm. And just wait until they get any dirt on McCain's VP.
It's ok for liberals/Democrats/Marxists to have “substance abuse” issues, but if a GOP has them, look out.
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