John McCain's First Wife

In a recent blog post, I expressed my disappointment at what I felt was an inappropriate explanation by McCain regarding the failure of his first marriage.

Josheph Bailey responded to that post and said, “I thought that McCain did a great job of answering the question about his first marriage. He did not back down from it and was direct in his response. This American does NOT need to hear the sordid detail’s of that failed first marriage.”

In a recent interview with McCain CNN’s John King brings up the fact that McCain applied for a marriage license to Cindy before his divorce from his first wife was final and, the couple had dated for a period of nine months while he was still living with his wife.

McCain responded to King by telling him, "It's 30 years ago. I have a happy marriage." If that isn’t backing down I don’t know what is? He sidestepped the subject and blatantly refused to openly discuss the actions he had taken and why he felt those actions were appropriate.

What does his response say about John McCain or anyone else who commits adultery? Is it an indication of a man who can’t take responsibility for his negative behavior? He is a man who is running for president of the U.S. How do we, people he has no emotional connection to put any trust in him to honor his commitment to us if he can’t even come clean about his actions toward his first wife?

As a person who is deciding who she will vote for in November I don’t care if John McCain has a happy marriage now. I care about the man’s belief system, what he feels is right and wrong, moral and immoral. If he feels the failure of his first marriage was his greatest moral failure, I want a clear, concise answer about what he did and what he has done since to make up for that moral failure.

If John McCain felt good about his actions toward his first wife, he would not be sidestepping questions about the subject. I want to know what he was thinking 30 years ago. What beliefs he held back then that helped him justify cheating on his wife and whether or not those beliefs have changed.

This is the way I view it. Thirty years ago, John McCain wanted Cindy. He did whatever he had to do to get Cindy. That included destroying his family. Leaving a wife, someone who had waited for him while he was a POW, had been severely injured in a car accident and was quite dependent on her husband. He broke up the family of his young children because his desire for a woman 17 years his junior was more important than the needs of the woman he was already married to and the needs of his children.

John McCain now wants to be president. We know from his past actions that when McCain wants something he is willing to go about getting it in an immoral way. His refusal to openly answer questions about the failure of his first marriages causes me to question whether his belief system has changed. Does he still believe that it is OK to get what you want in spite of whom you have to hurt in the process?

Then we have Cindy McCain and her own denial about her actions when she dated a married man. Cindy told King that it didn't bother her to be dating a married man because "my husband had been separated. ... You know, six and a half years, it was a long separation."

Hello Cindy! Your husband was a POW. He was not a man who was separated from his wife due to marital problems. He was a POW who came home and joined his wife and family and, according to his first wife promised to care for her and make a life with her. You’ve lived for 30 years lying to yourself to justify becoming involved with a married man and you are now your expect Americans to buy into your justification.

“I think I’ve been a good wife and I’m a good mother and I think that is what he wanted and what he saw in me,” said Cindy McCain.

Am I the only one who cringes at that statement? From all accounts, John McCain had a good wife when he met Cindy McCain. His wife was a good mother. She was no longer young, her car accident had left her with disabilities and she wasn’t the wealthy daughter of a beer distributor. By Cathy Meyer, About.com