A lot of people in John McCain's life like to point to his "impaccable character" as the strength that will take him thru to the White House. But his supporters need to be ready to speak to the fact that he divirced his first wife when he got back from Vietnam in order to marry a rich beauty queen. Divorce is common these days, so why is this one problematic? Because he was walking away from the woman who stood by him while he was a POW, when she had a car accident which robbed her of her looks.
I am not saying this should disqualify the man for the presidency. The ex-wife says she is not bitter, and that he has promised to pay her medical bills for life. But I think it shows a side of his character that we need to consider before he takes on the nuclear suitcase.
Sunday, June 08, 2008
John McCain's First Wife
Posted by Nomad at 12:11 PM
Labels: Character, johnmccain, McCain, presidentialcampaign, republicans
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6 comments:
John McCain divorcing his first wife and his anger are the two things that most concern me about McCain.
Despite how bad this article tries to paint the guy, something tells me he's grown since 1980. As far as we know, he's been faithful to his current wife for 28 years. They have a daughter they adopted from India just so she could get medical treatment. He made a mistake a long time ago - when some of the readers of this blog weren't even born. I don't think this should matter.
It's a smear piece, which is ironically exactly what the former Mrs. McCain didn't want.
Sean,
The problem is, no one else is talking about it AT ALL. And it needs to be discussed. It shows a part of McCain's character. It may be true that he has changed since then, or it may be that if Cindy McCain suddenly lost her looks that he'd dump her. I'd like to hear McCain at least speak to it. But I don't expect that to ever happen.
McCain has nothing to gain from talking about his first marriage. He should ignore it and if asked about it basically say "Lots of people in America get divorced for many different reasons. My Ex-Wife and I still have a friendly relationship and we prefer not to talk about our divorce." I think most Americans would accept it at that and move on.
It doesn't need to be discussed because it's nobodies business. Maybe - MAYBE - if there was some animosity between him and his first wife it would be worth discussing, but there's nothing to see here. He divorced here and while the SPECULATION is that he divorced her because of her looks, he has never said that. It's also distinctly possible that while he was in that prison in Vietnam he changed and did not love her anymore and maybe he was a womanizer. Maybe he was dealing with all sorts of stress and maybe he was under the influence of drugs. All of this is possible, but none is verifiable. Crchair is correct, that he should ignore it and move on.
It doesn't actually speak to his character now. Which is why this is a non-story that nobody is pursuing. And trust me, if there was a story here MSNBC at the least would have picked it up.
Sean,
With all due respect, you're wrong. A man makes a pledge to a women FOR LIFE, for better or for worse personal life. He then breaks that pledge. This speaks to character.
Being President is not like being a manager or a coworker, where their personal life is irrelevant to their job. Being President means you have the ability - to go to an extreme - to launch a nuclear strike for any reason. Thus, it is relevant to know if the person has broken a public promise in the past, and if so, why.
Compare this to Bill Clinton. Lots of people said that his affairs had nothing to do with his public life. Since then, he has blamed his inability to being Osama Bin Laden to heel before 9/11 based on his being caught up in the Monica Lewinsky madness. His character flaws had a DIRECT affect itpublic policy.
I am NOT saying McCain should be rejected for this issue. I am saying that his character IS an issue, and voters need to decide whether the divorce is relevant or not. If we don't talk about it, it robs voters of the ability to discuss it.
And would you rather this be an October Surprise thing which turns off voters last second before they can think about it rationally?
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