Hillary Clinton has won 15 primaries or caucuses. Barack Obama has won 19 primaries or caucuses by 20 percentage points or more. Frequently, a lot more. Obama won the Democratic nomination in March, and we're just waiting for his acceptance speech. In the interim, why not give this Cindy McCain person a closer look. I saw her on the "Tonight Show," and my impression was that she could prove to be a gift basket of bountiful political swag.
Time Magazine online has run a puff piece about Cindy McCain's appearance with Jay Leno. An Iowa TV station and other local stations across the country carried an homgenized glowing report about McCain's appearance on their websites.
Here is what the Time online piece had to say about one of the most controversial statements made by Cindy McCain on national television:
"He kind of chased me around ... an hors d'oeuvre table," she said. "I was trying to get something to eat and I thought, 'You know, this guy's kind of weird.'"
Did you notice that? I know, sometimes it's hard to hear, but that was the sound of silence. Silence as Time glossed over the fact that John McCain was a married man during this light-hearted bit of philandering, to a wife who was attempting to recuperate from a devastating car accident, to a wife with whom he shared three children.
Then, of course, Cindy McCain explained to Jay how her husband was such a good liar, such a fun liar is he! This is a puffy/happy paraphrase of what she said, again, according to Time online:
"When the couple first met at a party — she was a 25-year-old teacher, he was a 42-year-old Navy officer separated from his wife — they fibbed about their ages. Cindy McCain added four years to her age, while McCain lopped four years off his.
'We found out when we applied for our marriage license — they publish it in the newspaper,' she told Leno."
Did you catch that one? Instead of describing a fraud intended to induce marriage, Time noted how they both "fibbed," probably giggling to themselves about their fun, happy deception. What can we expect from a man who will lie about something so fundamental as his age to his future life partner? That, apparently, was beyond the scope of the puff pieces published by Time and others. Moreover, wouldn't it now be hypocritical for John McCain to claim that age isn't important?
Cindy McCain did dance around a touchy subject when she mentioned -- in hilarious fashion -- how John drives a car like a seventy-two-year-old man. Tee hee! No mention of the fact that McCain would be the oldest President ever elected, or that of the 39 Dead Presidents, only 14 lived past their 73rd year on the planet.
You remember John McCain calling Barack Obama an "elitist"? I was pretty drowzy at the time, but I think I heard Cindy McCain say that she had BOUGHT her husband an airplane to take to his campaign engagements. [Kossacks who saw the show, please correct me if I'm wrong here]. So, besides being worth over 100 million dollars (that's 1/10th of a billion dollars in real money), John McCain is so non-elitist he gets his own plane. How cute.
All in all, I believe that Cindy McCain will be a loose cannon in this election cycle. She told Jay that she'd be taking more speaking engagements in the future. Look for that swag bag of political plunder to benefit an Obama near you in the coming months!