bz2010

And I guarantee you that Michelle Obama hasn't adopted a child with health concerns from Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh either (as well as securing adoptions for other needy kids there too!).

Haven't heard anything about Michelle starting any humanitarian organizations or traveling the world in an effort to eliminate crippling landmines either.

And who knows WHAT the Obama's have invested in - their association w/ Tony Rezco raises some questions about that.

I would like to see a classy, elegant, patriotic First Lady who embodies (as much as possible) the ideal of the American woman and caring human being.

...And let's see which lady in the running has actually done the most to BRIDGE the gap between the races - how about adopting a child of another race?

Again, it's caviar & pork-n-beans when you try to comapare the two women in position to potentially be First LADY.

edvest1

By the way, Cinda McCain files independent tax (she from a wealthy family) and need not disclose her taxes because she's not running for office.

Northstarmom

"Haven't heard anything about Michelle starting any humanitarian organizations or traveling the world in an effort to eliminate crippling landmines either."

As is the case with her husband, Michelle also has been a community organizer, a thankless, difficult job. Learned this from someone who was a community organizer in Chicago and worked with both of them. Seems Michelle has worked hard to give back to Chicago to help other young people have the kind of opportunities that she, a first gen college student from a working class family, obtained.

Since unlike Ms. McCain, Michelle she has young children and also has had to work for a living (the Obamas only became wealthy after Barack's book was published), it's not feasible to expect that she would have had the time to do international community service. Anyway, there's plenty of need right in Chicago.

Meanwhile, unless their actions would affect national security, what Michelle or Cindy do with their time shouldn't be an issue for the campaign since they aren't running for office.

sunnymamere

"By the way, Cinda McCain files independent tax (she from a wealthy family) and need not disclose her taxes because she's not running for office."edvest1

"Meanwhile, unless their actions would affect national security, what Michelle or Cindy do with their time shouldn't be an issue for the campaign since they aren't running for office." NSM

Theresa Heinz Kerry released her tax returns, and I think she is a billionaire, while wealthy Cindy is a mere millionaire. We will never really know without those returns.

Since it has been revealed CM invested two million dollars in a volatile country engaged in genocide, and she could effect national security, her actions do concern me. If I heard MO was financing Sudan, that would also concern me.

parent2noles

^ I agree, NSM, as long as they stay out of the spotlight.

I do not agree that Mrs. Obama is just ordinary folk, however, as she attended and graduated from Princeton and then Harvard Law School. I suspect she's "connected" to the Chicago Democrat party in significant ways, since her father was a precinct captain for that party. Hardly working class folk, despite claims they are merely a working class family.

For example, as soon as she graduated from Harvard she lands a spot in Mayor Daley's office, the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Hospitals. Reportedly, she was paid some $274K (per their 2006 tax return) per year not including her salary from membership on the board of directors of another company.

Northstarmom

There are lots of working class precinct captains in places like Chicago, which has a large working class population. One can be in a politically active family and still working class.

This is part of her bio, which to me shows a longtime strong commitment to service. This includes her first position at U Chicago, where she was an associate dean. As a Princeton/Harvard graduate, she could have gotten many jobs paying bigger bucks. Most such people go straight into lucrative corporate jobs, which they stay in.

"Professional Career: After graduating from Harvard Law School, Michelle joined the law firm of Sidley Austin as an associate specializing in marketing and intellectual property. In 1988, a summer intern two years older by the name of Barack Obama came to work at the firm, and Michelle was assigned as his mentor. They married in 1992.

In 1991, the death of her father from complications related to MS caused Michelle to re-evaluate her life. She left corporate law to work in the public sector, first as assistant to Chicago mayor Richard M. Daly, later as the assistant commissioner of planning and development.

In 1993, she founded Public Allies Chicago which provided young adults with leadership training for public service careers. As executive director, she headed up a non-profit named by President Bill Clinton as a model AmeriCorps program.

In 1996, she joined the University of Chicago as associate dean of student services and established the University's first community service program. She was named executive director of community and external affairs and served in that role until her 2005 appointment to her position at the University of Chicago Medical Center."

Meanwhile, it's typical for families of politicians to campaign for the politicians as Michelle has been doing for her husband. However, it's very craven for political opponents to make the politicians' families the focus of advertising campaigns since those family members aren't running for office. Before the Tenn. GOP's add targeting Michelle, I can't remember ever hearing about a political ad that focused on a politican's family member.

yourworld

Cindy McCain invested her own money in the Sudans to help that country. Later the Sudanese leadership turned bad and doing bad things to people. You can't convict Cindy McCain for trying to help a good cause and for things she couldn't predict or control. Furthermore, if making money is one's motive, investing in a poor,volatile country like Sudan would be the last place to put one's money. I know so because I am in the investment business and other regions of the world like Brazil gives far better returns and stability.

bz2010

Cindy McCain has four children of her own w/ Sen. McCain, the youngest of which is 14. She was also stepmom to the daughter Sen. McCain had with his first wife as well as the two boys Sen. McCain ADOPTED from his first wife's previous marriage.

The McCain's are probably the LEAST self-serving people you'd ever see in politics.

---
What do you imagine went thru McCain's mind all those years as a POW (much of which was in solitary confinement)?

I'd think that one would either become very cynical or else begin to deeply cherish our country and the ideals it stands for. Certainly McCain must've embraced the latter - as evidenced by his staunch determination to fight corruption, wasteful spending and abuse of power in Washington.

He (& Cindy) are some of the "good guys". How honorable does one have to be to never, not once fail to resist the temptation to "bring home the pork" for one's state among all the thousands of earmarks that are distributed in Washington??

Obama, on the other hand, has solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars of OUR money to "pay back" political favors and reward the hospital that gave his wife a cushy job. That's CORRUPTION people!

Now Obama says he wants to DOUBLE the Capital Gains Tax!

Do you all really want to vote for that?

sunnymamere

Obama can triple my taxes, since I have draft age children.

I doubt anybody will argue Obama will have our precious children at war for a longer period than McCain.

TEN YEARS!

drb

Angela Jolie for President! (or at least 1st Lady).

edvest1

RE post 69:

draft-age children = triple your taxes ? I can't follow your logics. Please explain.

bz2010

Considering McCain has TWO sons on active duty right now, I doubt he's very eager to keep any conflict going.

You might not have heard about the McCains' adopted handicapped daughter or the fact that one of their sons has been serving in Iraq as an elisted Marine because they are adamant about not exploiting those issues on behalf of the campaign.

The McCains - all of them - are people of integrity. Senator McCain, his father and grandfather all went to the Naval Academy where Honor is a very real concept that is drummed constantly into the very fiber of the midshipmen.

Another concept fostered at USNA is leadership; McCain has obviously learned that well [he has led by example in a variety of ways, from his days refusing early release as a POW to his refusal to solicit pork projects]. Take comfort in the fact that we have a candidate who has been taught "Honor" and "Integrity" as well.

parent2noles

NSM, she has an impressive vita, but its still "elitist".

Just for me, I'd have been more reassured if she'd volunteered for a stint in the Marines. There's something comforting about the military as a bit of a level playing field. I know that some jarheads and grunts will say Academy grads are anything but ordinary, but give me a Colin Powell, not an Obama.

Powell for President! Why doesn't he run???

paying3tuitions

Without even looking at google, here's what I understand about the McCains:
John dumped a troubled first wife who stood by him throughout Vietnam and the early post-POW years.

Cinda's father was a wealthy Texan with heavy-duty Republican connections. Cinda's dad got young war hero John all set up and connected for a political career in the Southwest. Oh, and he married Cinda, who predates his actual divorce from Wife #1.

If you want to spend time debunking what I know, go ahead. I don't think any of this discussion is worth a hill of beans.

A candidate's wife is there to be as supportive as possible, put up with all kinds of impossible schedules, people who fawn over the spouse, and try to raise decent kids in the midst of it.

Voters who over-focus on the spouse (any of them) just aren't coming to terms with what they think about the main person: the candidate. IMHO.

1of42

This thread is highly amusing. Personally, I couldn't care less about the misdeeds of the candidates' spouses - they have absolutely no bearing on whether or not the candidate is fit to lead, in my mind.

But the contortions of the various McCain supporters in this thread trying to minimize the import of what Cindy McCain did is hilarious. From sticking heads in sand ("In addition to being ignorant, I'm also a bit skeptical"), edvest1's outrageously counter-factual rendition of the story (Cindy McCain wasn't stealing painkillers because she was still hurt, she was stealing them, as she herself admitted, because she was addicted, and moreover it's not like she grabbed a couple of pills here and there - there were enough falsified receipts and missing inventory that it became very obvious to the people working at the charity), to bz2010's attempt to use McCain's military service to distract from the issue.

You guys are all impressive contortionists. But personally, I don't enjoy debates in which one side is argued entirely on partisan merits, so I'll bow out now.