Garie Beach

Who is Carol McCain; besides John McCain's former wife?

I recieved this in a forwarded e-mail; I was wondering how much of it was factual. Carol McCain speaks out on her former husband. On the "Christian Forum" we saw a few weeks ago, McCain mentioned that his greatest failure in life was the ending of his first marriage. I guess he had to admit some remorse because his wife was going public with the story. First wife out of sight, how shallow can one man be? McCain likes to illustrate his moral fiber by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam . And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year- old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs. McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain's three eldest children. 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. But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries. When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Today, she stands at just 5' 4' in 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. My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.' In 1979 - while still married to Carol - he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii . Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Some of McCain's acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centered womanizer who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to 'play the field'. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons. 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. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.' 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.' Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, and a former presidential candidate, 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.

Public Comments

1. Ain't John a peach.
2. Most people voting for McCain don't know this story. They should.
3. I'm just afraid of what might happen if he gets elected. What if a younger, richer nation comes along and catches his eye! Could he dump us for Canada, if they bat their eyes at him?
4. I have researched this topic a lot, and find this to be an accurate version of what I have seen. Sad, isn't it?
5. Sarah better be careful when she drives around. Those roads in Alaska can get pretty slick...
6. Not that I'm deep into Politics ... but I've never been that Deep into Politics. Most politicians are like dirty diapers .... after a lot of stink .... ya just gotta change em.
7. Him picking Palin as VP makes even more sense to me now. He's a pig.
8. Yup, that appears to be pretty accurate, although it appears she supports him for president. Here is her Wiki bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_McCain Character counts, people. Obama '08
9. Yup, what a guy. It's completely true. He was a womanizer before marriage and during as well. She was repulsive? Did HE look in the mirror? Poor Carol wouldn't even let anyone tell John while he was overseas...so Ross Perot paid her medical bills. At least he was a gentleman. I think she's just one of those women who "accepted" that kind of abuse from a man and always saw the good in that azz. There aren't too many women in the world like that. She said "he came back a 40 year old but wanted to be a 25 year old". As if HE somehow earned that right and she deserved to be sh*t on. CHARACTER is EVERYTHING. And rarely does it change. And just FYI, John bought her a house and Cindy and he pay all her medical bills for life....in return for her divorcing John so he could lead his current "good" life. Oh and GEN? Don't insult us Canadians that way. We'd never allow the old fart past customs.
10. The story is true, and well-researched, unlike some of the garbage the right-wingers try to spew about Obama. In all fairness, though, Carol has said she's still voting for John, just as John Kerry's first wife (who has since died) supported him in 2004. Bob Dole's first wife also supported him in 1996. By contrast, the only previous divorced major-party nominees didn't get their first wives' support: Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and '56, and Ronald Reagan in '80 and '84. (Democrats printed up buttons saying, "Jane Wyman was right!")
11. I think I heard of her before. But its funny that most conservatives dont. He was so wrong for what he did lol
12. When she said: "My marriage ended because John McCain didn't want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.'" That is her opinion. Those of us who have had any sort of failed relationship and/or marriage know there are often 2 or more sides to every story. Maybe we should also get John McCain's side of things to before we crucify him as the villain. Another way of putting it, if your former significant other was putting her side of things out there, you should also get your side out. Somewhere between the two, should be a possible version of the truth. My guess is after both went through serious health issues, his being the extreme torture plus broken arms and leg plus hers as listed above, they were both impossible to do with. However he may have fared better because he had the strength of his fellow POW's to help sustain him. They understood because they were also going through what he did. Now who did she have for support? She did not have almost 200 fellow people (POW's in his case) who were with her every day and had serious injuries from an accident. That may be exactly the difference, he was more upbeat about his problems because of his support. She could have been an evil wench to deal with and that could drag anyone down. Just my 8 cents worth, adjusted up due to rising administration costs and inflation..