What You Don't Know About Cindy McCain Will Surprise You

Townhall.com ^ | July 10, 2008 | Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

[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.”

[Unicorn]

BTTT

[Liberty2007]

what I care to know about cindy mccain comes as no suprise. NOTHING! SHe IS NOT RUNNING!!!

[Liberty2007]

test

[Liberty2007]

trying to fix my tag...looks fine in the preview

[Miss Didi]

From the Washington Post on Cindy's June Vogue appearance:



"...She is stretched out on a chaise longue at her waterfront condo in California. She's wearing Lucky Brand jeans, which the story later tells us are a size 0, which we will accept without comment, and a Michael Kors sweater. Her feet, with a red pedicure, are bare. She's twisted on her side with her arms crossed in front of her chest and her blond hair -- loosed from its usual controlled coif -- is blowing in a breeze.

If there is one word the picture seems to be aggressively striving to evoke, it would be "relaxed." McCain's studied repose is in direct contrast to the image she projects in campaign photographs in which she is pressed, polished and so stiffly poised that she often looks like a wax replica of a political spouse. There's nothing especially natural or nonchalant about her Vogue portrait. One can almost see the fingerprints of the assistant who adjusted her hands just so and one wonders how long she had to hold her head at what looks to be an uncomfortable angle. But the implied message is unmistakable: I am not a Stepford wife." (snip)

Letting Her Hair Down, but Still Keeping Up Appearances

[Oldsailor]

what I care to know about cindy mccain comes as no suprise. NOTHING! SHe IS NOT RUNNING!!! You proved your shallowness with the first response and then followed up with how very shallow you are.

[dragnet2]

I know she’s worth 100 million dollars, not to mention the hidden assets.

[gathersnomoss]

The McCain's choose to serve, The Obama’s choose to take.

McCain, don't be Mr. Nice Guy with liberals. The history of the US is at stake.

[gathersnomoss]

“good looks of a beauty queen without the shallowness that goes with the stereotype.”

Michelle is very shallow. Note how caring she is with this blind man, as she watches him fall, then releases his hand as she rushes to center stage.

Sorry Stevie, you should have your handlers contact Cindy McCain. She, in fact does care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKGBN0LiQKQ

[Arthur McGowan]

What about Planned Parenthood?

[Boston Tea Party]

This piece of drivel was written by the moronic and hate crazed far left airhead Robin Givhan — she who had the effrontery to criticize the clothing of Justice Roberts’ children. Just ignore it

[Liberty2007]

so, you vote for first ladies?

[Oldsailor]

Again, your shallowness (or maybe low IQ) shows with your misunderstanding of my post.

[kinghorse]

If it’s true she drift drives for kicks that would explain the special education.

/scooter rider
//don’t encourage young boys to drive like jerk by encouraging the stunt driving crap. Teenagers don’t have a season pass at the track dear

[kinghorse]

You kind of think she’d know better than brag about her big hemis right here. I mean Phil Gramm saying we were recessed only in our minds kind of runs congruous with this out of touchness. What’s next, attending a Hummer rally? Maybe doing a RV jamboree? I hear the RV folks are only recessed in their minds as well when they pull up to the pump. LOL. Tighten up your message. Times are tougher than you’re letting on Pubs.

[Tammy8]

I know she’s worth 100 million dollars, not to mention the hidden assets.

Maybe if they do make it to the White House we won't have to worry about them stealing the good stuff when they leave.

[shield]

Off the radar....Mrs. McCain has helped many of the unfortunate...Obambi’s wife has done NOTHING compared to Mrs. McCain.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Excellent article...

It seems the mainstream media has been quiet about the wonderful qualities Cindy has...

[dragnet2]

Maybe if they do make it to the White House we won't have to worry about them stealing the good stuff when they leave.

What they'd leave behind would be much more of a concern.

[Hot Tabasco]

Michelle Obama tries to kill Stevie Wonder......

Priceless! ROFLMAO!