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COLUMNISTS
TODAY'S STORIES
08.10.2008
What's Eating Cindy McCain?

Yesterday she accused Barack Obama of "wag[ing] the dirtiest campaign in American history." Today she all but accuses him of putting her son's life in danger, telling a rally in Pennsylvania:

“The day that Sen. Obama cast a vote to not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body let me tell you,” she said. “I would suggest Sen. Obama change shoes with me for just one day. I suggest he take a day and go watch our men and women deploying.”

That's some ugly, ugly stuff. Much uglier, I'd add, than Michelle Obama's line about being proud of her country for the first time. After all, there was some question about what Obama was trying to say or whether she misspoke. It's all too clear what McCain's saying here.

In the late David Foster Wallace's largely glowing Rolling Stone profile of John McCain back in 2000, he memorably wrote (in the unabridged version that later appeared in this book) of McCain's Missus:

Mrs. Cindy McCain is up there too, brittly composed and smiling at the air in front of her and thinking about God knows what. 

Well, at least we no longer have to wonder about what she's thinking.

--Jason Zengerle

Posted: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 2:54 PM with 15 comment(s)

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cspencef said:

She sees the campaign slipping away and her true character is coming out.  No shock here.  

October 8, 2008 3:23 PM

icarusr said:

Second cspence.  The first time she made a quip about Michelle's comment showed her off as an angry, unhinged woman.  Now this confirms it.  She'll be back on Percodan and Vicodin after the election.

October 8, 2008 3:35 PM

GSpinks said:

Maybe because she has spent the last umpteen million years grooming her politician husband to ascend to the highest office in the land, and now that McCain has finally won his party's nomination, he is going to lose the general election. Her life's ambition,, to become the most influential woman in America, is within reach but her plan is being thwarted by the upstart negro half-breed junior Senator from Illinois.

October 8, 2008 3:41 PM

WoodyBombay said:

I don't know what her problem is, but I'm sure it's nothing screwing another woman's husband and zoning out on stolen prescription drugs won't cure.

October 8, 2008 3:43 PM

waynejm said:

Just wondering - how did she feel when her husband voted not to fund the troops?

October 8, 2008 3:45 PM

mpatrickhendri said:

Look, it's not hard to figure out. The woman saw a future president when she married McCain. Her whole life has been directed toward that goal. Now it's not going to happen. It's tough. Here's hoping she's able to cope. I know: she can to lay down on her enormous pile of cash, pop a vicodin and think about how proud she is of her country.

October 8, 2008 3:46 PM

Rhubarbs said:

So what, I wonder, was she thinking the day that her husband cast a vote not to fund her son when he would be serving? Did John get a taste of the cold chill in Cindy's body?

Given that she would be the first first lady to have a criminal record, I would think she would have the good sense and decency to avoid all attacks on her husband's opponent and instead campaign positively for her husband.

October 8, 2008 3:47 PM

adaglas said:

I suppose it barely warrants mentioning that Obama's can't even be called the dirtiest campaign in the history of this campaign, let alone the whole Republic.

October 8, 2008 4:00 PM

csmiller said:

Who took the pills away from the fembot?  GIVE THEM BACK!

October 8, 2008 4:29 PM

satyendra said:

Cindy McCain was a babe in total control of herself, she was.

October 8, 2008 4:39 PM

icarusr said:

By the way, now that Stepford Cindy has entered into the fray so directly, is she fair game for attack ads?  I'm no meanie, mind you - just enough to send her back to her pills for the rest of the campaign.  She can do rehab and community service afterwards.

October 8, 2008 6:26 PM

Wandreycer1 said:

She has come across from Day 1 as an unrelenting shrew.  I have yet to hear a positive comment out of this woman's mouth.  She is constantly pinched, angry, belittling.  How inspiring.  She also looks like she absolutely loathes her husband, it radiates from her.  What a grim specter.

Sad.

October 8, 2008 6:30 PM

blackton said:

Actually, she should be angry at her husband for voting for an unjust war that has nothing to do with 9/11, one that has cost the lives of thousands of Americans already.

For the record I supported the war but can see how many Americans could see it otherwise, but good God I at least recognized that going to war was far more likely to risk soldiers lives than not (and certainly playing word games with a house resolution is bizarre, Obama wants to bring the troops home, McCain wants them to stay) What a stupid and pathetic woman she is.

October 8, 2008 6:52 PM

Nusholtz said:

This reminds me of Lynn Cheney after one of the debates in 2004, when John Kerry exampled her daughter, Mary, as a gay person having the support of her family.  Lynn Cheney, miffed at the use of her family for political purposes, said of Kerry:  "This is a bad man."  By the way, whatever happened to her husband, Mr. Radioactive.   When I news googled his name, I could only find that he was at a signing ceremony -- as reported by the international edition of a newspaper from Inda called "Zee News."

October 9, 2008 9:41 AM

3mjesus said:

Cindy McCain thinking.  That's funny.

October 9, 2008 7:59 PM