The Daily Mail: "The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind"

[kpete]

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’

The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind

By Sharon Churcher
Last updated at 1:45 AM on 08th June 2008

...................................

She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news.

........................

Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self.

Today, she stands at just 5ft4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering.

For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later.

more at:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

[Wapsie B]

1. I would hope that at the very least she got a good divorce settlement.

This is a story along the lines of Gingrich or Bob Barr, preaching family values with no socially redeeming quality themselves.

[momster]

24. She got $1650 a month

for herself (unable to work because of her accident) and their three children, one both of theirs, two hers but adopted by McCain. He, of course, went off with the beer delivery heiress.

[mcg]

29. that's about 34% of McCain's disability income. nt

[pepperbear]

2. Sorry to hone in on what is probably the least important detail in this story, but VA BEACH

....is hardly a fading seaside resort.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Actually, the economy is kind of collapsing. The Navy is a third the size it was 20 years ago...

The Navy is the smallest it's been since BEFORE the First World War.

You see consignment and thrift stores EVERYWHERE.

My mother lives there.

"Fading?" No. Doing well? No!

[patrice]

3. I'm not certain how this one is going to play in a culture that has a divorce rate near 50%.nt

[XOKCowboy]

4. She's a very classy, but misguided, lady

He's low class scum. Even Perot is saying it.

This story shows his character but they'll always defuse it by saying she still "adores" him.

[Captain Hilts]

7. The divorce rate among POWs was very, very high. People had changed/moved on. nt

[Diana Prince]

9. I understand POW's and their families had a hard time adjusting

BUT, this is also the guy who called his current wife the "C" word.

[XOKCowboy]

10. True

There was a high divorce rate among regular GIs coming back from Vietnam. I'm trying to feel some compassion for McCain but it's still obvious that he came back and found his "beauty queen" disfigured and traded her in for a better model.

[Captain Hilts]

12. He's a total creep, that's for sure. Funny, he has no 'friends' in the senate...

but everyone feels they have to treat him with kid gloves and respect him. I understand the senate is the last institution in the US with institutionalized rituals of comity, but it's still weird.

[bigbrother05]

11. Yes, but how many married a young heiress a month later.

The Manchurian Candidate?

[KitchenWitch]

6. Wow, talk about Stockholm Syndrome!

I feel really bad for Carol McCain!

[goclark]

30. As a woman I would never vote for him

I'm still stuck on the "friend" that was flying around with him last year.

Recall the one day story that the media "forgot."

[defendandprotect]

35. Actually, wasn't that a story of corruption via lobbyists before it became a romance . . . ???

and didn't it just make McCain look better because someone may have been attracted to him???

[Diana Prince]

8. Gotta love Rethug FAMILY VALUES n/t

[lonestarnot]

13. K & R for piglicon family values.

[malaise]

14. There are times I love the Daily Mail

Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit.

‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it.

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’

One old friend of the McCains said: ‘Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that’s a defence mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.’

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.’
------------------

Send this to all your Fundie neighbors ASP!!! I hope the cheque from the Daily Mail (and they pay well) frees her up to say what she really wants to say.

Go McSame - great family values. Carol can back him for his money but will those family values voters?

[LeftishBrit]

36. You wouldn't love it, if you knew it better.

It's a very right-wing rag. They hate immigrants, foreigners, gays feminists, Muslims, poor people, and the welfare state; and love Thatcherism and virtually any war you could mention. You have Rush Limbaugh; we have the Daily Hate-Mail.

To clarify: I'm not defending McCain; but it wouldn't surprise if they're attacking him because they're influenced by people who think he's not right-wing enough!

[malaise]

15. Please send this to Tom Brokaw

with the pix

[blondeatlast]

18. There's an adult life of pain in her face. He's a scumsucker--

and his current wife is the--well, you get the picture...

[malaise]

19. In presenting his fairy tale story about McSame last week

Brokaw deliberately left out Carol. Good to see that the Daily Mail is not sleeping, although they too are RW hacks. I do wonder what they paid her for this, but I suspect they're offering even more for the real story. A Carol tells all book would be priceless.

[truedelphi]

16. There are two ways of looking at John McCain. One is as a war hero,

a man of unusual resiliance and courage.

The other is as a man who crashed his plane and destroyed his life. Then when he gets out of the tiger cages, he comes home and destroys his wife.

Since his next experiment could be the U.S.A., I can only hope that if he ends up President it turns out he is John McCain number one.

[tomreedtoon]

17. They're the same person.

And in that, there should be a message for all of us. There are people who have done superb things for their country and ugly things in their personal lives. It's hard for us mortal beings to determine where the balance lies. (And yes, that can refer to Democratic Party people as well.)

[roody]

20. What has he done for his country?

I don't count going to Vietnam to drop bombs on non-white people.

[momster]

26. He crashed 4 planes

Look, I respect what he went through as a POW but prior to that his military career was completely undistinguished. He wrecked 4 airplanes, is a suspected creator of one of the largest disasters in the modern navy (USS Forrestal fire), and graduated at the bottom of his class. He quit the Navy when it became glaringly obvious he'd never reach flag rank as did his father and grandfather. He came home, started running around on his wife (who has stated their divorce was largely because he was 40 and wanted to be 25), and divorced her only to marry a perky 25 yr old heiress whose dad promptly paid to run him for office. McCain has never lived off the government tit...he was born into it, he lives off it, and always will receive money/health care/protection from it. He has never held a job, known poverty, or had bills to pay that he could not handle.

He is unfit for the job he wants now by every measure.

[truedelphi]

37. I can't say I disagree at all.

But my optimism is working - I just saw someone win the nomination last week, and watched the speech that he gave to his young workers. I thought, "He really means what he is telling them. He is as happy that all these young people have become organizers and community leaders as he has about securing the nomination."

[undeterred]

21. "a man who is unusually slick and cruel"

The American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

And those standards are pretty damn low, after Bush.

[CC]

22. This plus the fact that his

present wife doesn't trust him enough to even file a joint tax return should be shouted far and wide. People can say they changed since whatever they did in the past but when your wife of the now trust you so little that she doesn't even let you know how much money she is really worth tells me the guy can not be trusted to lead my country.

[Disturbed]

23. McBush is an Asshole.

At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt."

[malaise]

25. He does these days

for TeeVee :rofl:

[lonestarnot]

27. kick

[kentuck]

28. Surprising words from H. Ross Perot !

I have never seen anywhere that he has ever said anything negative about any former POW??

"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.’"

[anonymous171]

31. So much for "family values" eh?

[Mojorabbit]

32. What I am wondering is how

Ross Perot plays into this. Was he a family friend? Why did he decide to pay her medical bills(a wonderful thing for him to do)?, etc.. but none of the relationship between him and the McCains is explained.

[Lerkfish]

34. I'm not sure, but wasn't Perot a financial backer for Delta Force (or similar name)

that spent money to send people back into nam to rescue POWs?

they made a movie of it, with some handsome guy playing perot (and tall, too) I think.

[Baby Snooks]

33. The Republican Party and its "Poster Boys"

Tom De Lay is their poster boy for ethics. John McCain and Newt Gingrich are their poster boys for family values. Watch the Republicans begin to steer clear of both ethics and family values.