Attention Bloggers: John McCain’s ugly divorce is off limits
September 9, 2008 by William K. Wolfrum
This has been a difficult election cycle for bloggers. We have seen our reputation dragged through the mud, our motives and patriotism questioned and been accused of being low-class muckrackers.
That is why I make this request of all bloggers – We must not mention Republican Presidential nominee John McCain’s ugly divorce from his first wife, Carol McCain.
You know, the divorce that really pissed off the Reagans because of how callously he treated Carol McCain? Yeah, than one. We have no business bringing it up.
This is an election not about issues, it is about the composite view of what people take away from these candidates. And John McCain was a POW. The fact that he cheated on Carol McCain is not something that makes up the composite view of what people take away from these candidates. So we must not be tempted to go there.
My friends, we must be above the fray. We must have honor, not be like the dishonorable who take cheap shots at John McCain by bringing up the fact while he spent five-and-a-half years in a Vietnam prison camp, Carol spent five-and-a-half in a prison of worry and fear for the husband she so obviously loved. With more than two of those years undergoing 23 operations and extensive physical therapy to recover from a car accident that nearly took her life. And got cheated on and divorced for her loyalty. To shed light on such an issue is the lowest form of journalism.
The simple fact is that too many unsubstantiated rumors are dominating the political coverage in 2008. Because of that, it behooves us to avoid discussing documented truths from John McCain’s past.
My friends, things that happened decades ago make no difference in this election!
So we will not copy and paste this entire section of Carol McCain’s Wikipedia’s entry on how John McCain cheated on, and then divorced her, and then put it in blockquotes, like such …
John McCain was shot down and badly injured over North Vietnam on October 26, 1967, beginning what would be five and a half years as a prisoner of war.[12] During his captivity she raised their children by herself in Orange Park, Florida, with the assistance of friends and neighbors in the Navy-oriented community.[13] She sent frequent letters and packages to him,[13] few of which the North Vietnamese let through.[14] She became active in the POW/MIA movement,[6] while those around her wore bracelets with her husband’s name and capture date on them.[13]
While visiting her family in Philadelphia on Christmas Eve 1969,[13] Carol McCain was driving alone in snowy, icy conditions. Approaching an intersection on an isolated country road, she skidded and collided with a telephone pole, was thrown from the car into the snow, and went into shock. Some time later she was found and taken to Bryn Mawr Hospital;[9] she had two smashed legs, a broken pelvis, broken arm, and ruptured spleen. She spent six months in the hospital, and over the course of the next two years had 23 operations[9] as well as extensive physical therapy.[15] She did not tell her husband about the accident in her letters to him, believing he already had enough to worry about,[9] and the U.S. State Department told a surgeon who operated upon her not to mention anything to the press, lest it worsen the treatment for John McCain.[16] Businessman and POW advocate Ross Perot paid for her medical care[17]and she remained grateful to him: “The military families are in Ross’s heart and in his soul … There are millions of us who are extremely grateful to Ross Perot.”[18] Years after John McCain found out about Perot’s help, he said “we loved him for it.”[19] She was interviewed on the CBS Evening News in 1970, and said that Christmas had no meaning for her without her husband present, but that she carried on with it for the sake of their children.[13]
The McCains were reunited upon his release from captivity on March 14, 1973.[20] She was now four inches (ten centimeters) shorter, on crutches, and substantially heavier than when he had last seen her;[17] he was also visibly hampered by his injuries and the mistreatment he had endured from the North Vietnamese.[21] The McCains became frequent guests of honor at dinners hosted by Governor of California Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan,[22] and the two couples became friendly.[2] Carol McCain worked for Ronald Reagan’s 1976 presidential campaign in Florida, as he sought the Republican Party nomination.[2]
During John McCain’s assignment as Executive Officer and Commanding Officer of the VA-174 squadron located at Naval Air Station Cecil Field outside Jacksonville, Florida,[23] Carol and John led an active social life together, entertaining other naval personnel at their Orange Park home and Ponte Vedra beach house.[24] However, the McCains’ marriage began to falter as he had extramarital affairs.[25][24]
John McCain’s next assignment was to the Senate Liaison Office within the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs.[26] The McCains separated briefly, then rejoined.[17] His job was aided by the social life the couple conducted, entertaining Navy, government, and other people three to four nights a week at their Alexandria, Virginia home.[27] During this time she worked for Congressman John H. Rousselot.[28] By 1979, the McCains were still living together.[17] In April 1979, John McCain met and began a relationship with Cindy Lou Hensley, an Arizona special education teacher and Hensley & Co. heiress.[17]
John McCain pushed to end the marriage;[17] Carol McCain was described by friends as being in shock from the developments.[17][6] The McCains stopped cohabiting in January 1980;[6] John McCain filed for a divorce in February 1980,[6] which Carol McCain accepted at that time.[17] When asked by a friend what had gone wrong, she said, “It’s just one of those things.”[17] The uncontested divorce became official in Fort Walton Beach, Florida on April 2, 1980.[29][6]
John McCain would later say, “My marriage’s collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam, and I cannot escape blame by pointing a finger at the war. The blame was entirely mine.”[25] Carol McCain would later say: “The breakup of our marriage was not caused by my accident or Vietnam or any of those things. I don’t know that it might not have happened if John had never been gone. I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else.”[25] John McCain’s biographer, Robert Timberg believes that “Vietnam did play a part, perhaps not the major part, but more than a walk-on.”[30] According to Carol, her husband’s five-year captivity in Vietnam had left him wanting to “make up for lost time,”[1] and John put it this way: “I had changed, she had changed….People who have been apart that much change.”[30] Ross Perot would later say, ” After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona [Cindy McCain, his current wife] and the rest is history.” [19] Carol’s three children were initially upset with John McCain about the divorce, but later reconciled.[17]
The divorce settlement accorded Carol McCain alimony, child support, houses in Virginia and Florida, and lifelong financial support for her ongoing medical treatments resulting from the 1969 automobile accident.[1] John McCain and Hensley were married on May 17, 1980.[25] Carol McCain was sued by Roberta McCain, John’s mother, in 1980 for return of personal property; the suit was settled out of court in 1981.[31]
Despite the divorce, Carol McCain has remained on good terms with John McCain,[25] and has supported him in all his subsequent political campaigns.[1] She refused to discuss her marriage with an election opponent of McCain’s in 1982 who was seeking negative information about him, telling the opponent that “a gentleman never would have called.”[32] She supports her ex-husband’s 2008 presidential campaign, and told The Mail on Sunday in June 2008 that she was not bitter and that, “He’s a good guy. We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.”[1]
… because that would be wrong.
My friends, I thank you for your high-minded principles on this matter. As bloggers, we must follow the mainstream media’s lead and show a level of respect and deference to all candidates. So we must respect how John McCain committed adultery and then divorced Carol McCain.
John McCain is a maverick who doesn’t conform to normal Republican standards. So again, please, focus on his character, not how he cheated on and then left Carol McCain.
–WKW
Tell me, how can a woman who’s suffered such abject disrespect and indignity from a man of little to no character or conscience still think he’s the best man for president? What does president indicate or mean to people?! I always thought the president was someone of high moral character, compassion, intelligence, and integrity to name just a few elements. I don’t see that John McCain has any of these. In my estimation, he’s not the best man or even person for president. He’s a lying liar, who’ll say and do anything to get this position of power. Plain and simple…
So I shouldn’t do this?
I’ll try to keep that in mind.
http://listofdicks.blogspot.com/2008/09/bill-wolfrum-said-not-to-do-this.html
http://democracyforums.com/showthread.php?p=265912#post265912
Um, he’s still paying all her bills and ( I would bet) a fairly hefty amount of alimony. It sounds like she will need a lot of medical care as she gets older and her damaged bones get more frail. Lucky for McCain that he married Cindy and can afford to keep his divorced wife with her money. This whole thing says so much about his true character and what kind of person he is. I only wish more people would discuss it!!
John McCain is a maverick who doesn’t conform to normal Republican standards. – Umm, what exactly does that mean(link doesn’t work).
There have been so many indescretions of so many different types that I just can’t decide which”normal standard” you are referring to.
There’s the Duke Cunningham standard, the Foley standard, the Delay standard, the Frist video diagnosis standard, the Larry Craig wide stance standard, and the list goes on……
Keep up the good work.
Dgun- no, you shouldn’t.
And the Washington Monthly link is now working for me, thanks. Oh, those standards.
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