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Cindy McCain, Lonesome Cowgirl

Candidate's wife likes her privacy, and her past isn't easy to unravel

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Sep 10, 2008 3:20 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Cindy McCain is a classic Western loner who chose to raise her kids as a self-styled “single parent” in Phoenix rather than join John in Washington as he served in the Senate. She may be a size zero, but she has "unusual grit": she drives a race car, flies a plane, and she likes to tell stories of making big decisions and then springing them on John, Ariel Levy writes in the New Yorker.

Her penchant for distance also includes evasiveness—"In the time that I spent with the McCains, Cindy never looked me in the eye, even when she was speaking to me," Levy writes. And there's a tendency to edit out inconvenient details, like John's first marriage and her own half-sister from her father's first marriage. As to her role in the campaign: “You can see the toe marks in the sand where I was brought on board,” she says.




Cindy McCain.
Cindy McCain.   (AP Photo)
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., attempts to settle the crowd before speaking as his wife Cindy applauds.
Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., attempts to settle the crowd before speaking as his wife Cindy applauds.   (AP Photo)
John and Cindy McCain.
John and Cindy McCain.   (AP Photo)
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But what about her fashion sense?
Associated Press

Mrs McCain's money makes campaign fly
Huffington Post

And, of course, the forgotten half-sister
NPR

 
John McCain • drug addiction • New Yorker magazine • privacy • Cindy McCain • Election 2008

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