A Nice Woman, but...

When I first read this article about Cindy McCain, I was distressed. I didn't know what to think. As many of my fellow bloggers have pointed out, she has a long list of redeeming qualities, and many qualities that are far from being so. Like CINFG, I am wondering why she got off without criminal charges for her drug addiction and for stealing from her not-for-profit. I wonder why she still (apparently) is allowed to be in control of this organization after this incident. In regard to John McCain, the concerned husband, I don't believe we can expect someone to uphold the law if they feel they and theirs are above it. I feel bad for Cindy that no one noticed her problem for (from what I gather from the article), THREE years, and then it was her mother who finally realized--someone who seems to have been close by the whole time. On the whole, I am happy for Cindy that she has gotten to spend so much time with her husband on the campaign trail after all these years of being apart. However, the article made me feel like the author is pushing for us to elect John McCain for the sole purpose of reuniting these separated lovers. That seems like a bad idea.

Cindy says that she always knew that her husband would "put country first." In my opinion, if a man can't keep tabs on his own family, he has no business running the country. If he can't cope with a small group of people under his leadership and authority, how can he lead the entire population of the United States? I don't know all of the circumstances, but he started seeing Cindy before he was divorced. Quite frankly, I wouldn't have been so excited at a married man paying his attentions to my daughter as the Hensleys seemed to be. As a few people have pointed out, including Parapluie, McCain made vows to his first wife, and it didn't seem like he made that much of an effort to make the marriage work. Aside from the inference (or am I reading into it) that he didn't want to be with his permanently INJURED wife anymore and wanted to "reclaim" his life (isn't she the life he was missing out on as a POW?), part of the vows I'm assuming he made is that he would be true to the person he was marrying in sickness and in health as long as they both were alive -- Carol Shepp was definitely alive. His first wife is referenced as saying she didn't "blame" him for essentially wanting to be something that he's not (referring to his age) and seemingly looking for greener pasture. If a man can't stay true and keep his promise to one other person, how can he expect to keep his promises to an entire nation?

Back to Cindy: She obviously has a lot going on, and I can understand her wanting to keep her and her family's privacy, but she can't expect much of it on the campaign trail or if her husband gets elected to office. In that respect, I think we as a nation need to reevaluate the degree to which our media delves into people's personal lives when they attain celebrity. Other bloggers have even admitted they read far too much celebrity gossip. Why do we perpetuate this invasion of privacy? How much is too much? Why was there so much press on her visit to Vietnam that Cindy became, in her own words, a "distraction"? It doesn't seem like it helped very much, except I guess we can credit the media with the information about Cindy and that poor woman and her baby in Vietnam. Like LANEUVIEMEROBE, I wonder what ever happened to them. Perhaps the most compelling part of the article, the end of that particular story is left hanging, seemingly irrelevant for Newsweek's purposes. That leads me to believe it was an unsuccessful operation -- but was it? Why not say so?

One more thing -- why on earth do they have "family" recipes on the Campaign website to begin with?