Hillary and Me

I know, I know, we’re voting for our next president and not First Lady, but we do get a package deal regardless of whom we cast our votes for in November.

Let me state something else; I generally don’t like to compare women and their styles because I think that’s unfair. We, each of us, have a right to “be who we are” unencumbered.  So why even go there?

I still believe that Hillary is the best hope and chance for this country going forward.  Since the DNC’s selection of Barack Obama has made that almost impossible (we still have Denver!) and caused such a splintering of the party, I will be among the many that votes for McCain, not out of anger, but out of the conviction that an Obama presidency would be disastrous for America.  Ergo, it was time to look at Cindy more closely.

I’ve recently seen stories on Cindy McCain that have altered my initial impressions about her. These impressions weren’t necessarily negative, but I didn’t necessarily warm to (what I perceived as) her cool exterior.

Whereas Michelle has engendered hostility in some corners because of her comments about “only recently being proud of her country”, the flip side with Cindy was a kind of aloofness that left me vaguely dissatisfied.

Come on now, she wears a size one or two (meow); whereas the the average woman in America wears size fourteen! Then there were that the pictures in Vogue where barely a hair was out of place . . . just a little too perfect (meow) for my tastes.

The media has slowly begun to show us another side of Cindy McCain and its a far different picture of the woman originally presented. There’s another possibility, and that is I wasn’t really interested in knowing more. That having been said, here’s the Cindy I am warming to; she apparently grew up rich, beautiful, and privileged.  So did Jackie Kennedy.  No points taken off here.

There is some controversy about how she and John became husband and wife, as her detractors would like to bludgeon her with.  Personally, I don’t think their personal life is anyone’s business any more than I thought Bill Clinton’s indiscretions were, or Newt Gingrich’s, or a host of politicians on both sides of the aisle.

She also had a drug related problem more than 15 years ago, related to pain killers which she has admitted and talks about candidly.  To those who would try to use that as a weapon against her (John) might I remind you that Betty Ford also had a drug problem and that’s why there’s a Betty Ford Treatment Center.

Here’s what counts in my book.  She and John have 4 children, one which was adopted with cleft palate 15 years ago.  This in turn led Cindy into charity work that with Operation Smile. See

Her charity work includes working to rid the world of land mines.  See

Here’s what really counts with me.  Cindy could have chosen to stay at home and go the Town and Country route, instead she chose to get her hands dirty, pitch in and make a difference long before her husband was a candidate for president.  I respect that, and I suspect millions of other people will respect that as well.  There’s a bonus as well, she a genuine NASCAR fan!  Junior is her favorite driver.

And if all that weren’t enough she learned how to drive race cars and fly a plane (as a way of conquering her fears) after 40!!  That makes her OK in my book.  So Cindy, I’ve got one thing to say to you, ” you go girl, you go girl, you go girl!”