Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) faces wife Cindy during a rally outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., today. They have campaigned together. (AP photo by Carolyn Kaster)
by Mark Silva
In the end, a campaign is a family affair.
If the pursuit of the highest office in the land will not inexorably alter the family life of the candidate who wins it, the campaign will certainly consume it.
John McCain, senior senator from Arizona, has had the company and moral support of his wife Cindy on the campaign trail. She even performed a good-humored Vanna White-like cameo role on Saturday Night Live for the Republican nominee over the weekend, displaying his mock QVC line of McCain "Fine Gold."
Since the couple were married in 1980 - his second marriage - the former Cindy Hensley has supported the political career of the former Navy flier and prisoner of war in every way possible: Helping him finance his first campaign for Congress in 1982, helping him get a house in the district where he wanted to run and then raising their children in Phoenix while the congressman and then senator plugged away for nearly 26 years.
She was the 24-year-old daughter of a wealthy beer distributor when they met. He was 18 years her senior, a Navy captain. Both lied about their ages at their meeting in Hawaii. They have had three children together and adopted a fourth. All but the youngest sons and daughters of McCain's seven total, the adopted Bridget, a teenager, are adults now. For the McCain's the White House would largely be an adult affair.
Barack and Michelle Obama, on the other hand, are the parents of two young girls. He has often campaigned without the company of his family.
Not since John Kennedy occupied the White House has the nation focused on a first family that included two picture-perfect young children. Barack Obama, junior senator from Illinois, has largely shielded his children from the glare of the campaign - cringing when interviewers elicited regretted personal information for a celebrity TV show, and turning guard-dog protective when press photographers got too close to last week's father-daughter Trick-or-Treating.
But in the White House, the Obamas would inevitably present a family tableau unseen for many years, an irresistible source of scrutiny for a nation already hosting a historic inheritor of the Oval Office, the first African-American president in a nation once riven by slavery and only lately providing legal protection for the voting rights of minorities.
For the Obama's, the White House would largely be a family affair, a family that they would be sharing, as much as they attempted to shield it, with a nation.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), wife Michelle and children Malia and Sasha arriving in Cleveland for a rally with balladeer Bruce Springsteen on Sunday. (Chicago Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak)
Comments
Dear undecided Voter,
Please vote.
In the final analysis this election has been fought on following emotional presumptions by the both campaigns.
1. Presidential Temperament.
2. Sound presidential Judgment.
3. Meaningful plans, policies, and positions'
4. Understanding and knowledge of workings in & around Washington.
5. Vigor, wisdom and vision" for the future of our beloved Great-grand Nation.
6. American Values, Virtues, Vastness, and Strong soul.
7. Fear & hope & future & past.
9. Culture unite and Culture Divide.
10.Tactics of tearing people down & showing past scars and Inspiring people up and fearing people away.
11. Restoring Global standing and threatening global dominance.
12. Building nation up all around and Scaring people away from the tickets.
As a Independent registered voter I have decided to vote for the Obama-Biden ticket. I am sure they will protect our national security, strengths, stamina and soul as well as rebuild our nation from the bottom up in all areas of need. The OBAMA-BIDEN ticket will restore our global standing with the use of maximum, firm international diplomacy and minimal force if and when necessary.
Yours sincerely,
COL. A.M. Khajawall [Ret] MD., Forensic psychiatrist, Colonel, US-AR
/ MC Combat Stress Control[Ret], Disabled American Veteran and Iraq
Freedom team.
Posted by: COL. A.M.Khajawall [Ret] | November 3, 2008 1:24 PM
Dear big Mac the RNC has run a low blow ad using rev wrights quote shame on you. My wife 72 and I 67 years old will cast our votes on Tue for that one! so it's like losing 4 votes two you didn't get and two he did. 2+2=4 so the nasty words will haught you
Posted by: james hundley | November 3, 2008 2:25 PM
Camelot? I don't think so. There will never be another Camelot with the style, grace and class of the Kennedy years, so don't go there. Years later we learned that things weren't so perfect but it was a lovely on the surface for America. It may be attempted to be copied, but there will only be one "true" Camelot.
Posted by: vla | November 3, 2008 2:44 PM
The plural of "Obama" is "Obamas". There is no apostrophe necessary.
Posted by: jlp | November 3, 2008 4:03 PM
I have wondered since the day after the GOP convention, why doesn't John McCain have his adopted, darker complected daughter standing beside and behind him at rallies--like he always has his blond daughter there 'at attention'. If applicable, even schools have week-ends free.
Posted by: Vivian | November 3, 2008 10:16 PM