Wifeswapping: Pants and Politics

"So," you say, "What a cute photo. That must be Cindy and John McCain, right?" John McCain, yes. Cindy, no. Meet Carol, his first wife. He was married to Carol, the swimwear model, until she got too old and ugly for his taste. Don't believe me? Listen to Ross Perot: "After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona and the rest is history." Countering those who might chalk it all up to the difficulties of returning home after being a POW in Vietnam, Carol herself said in regard to the failure of their marriage and his infidelity, "I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else." And John agrees, "My marriage's collapse was attributable to my own selfishness and immaturity more than it was to Vietnam." I admire the honesty. I don't admire the history of infidelity and I don't admire the mainstream media for making infidelity a huge issue for others but not when they talk about McCain. Most people I have spoken too don't even know that he was married before, not to mention that he cheated on wife #1 multiple times and then finally dumped her for the filthy rich 25 year-old Cindy.

By the way, I wondered what his first wife looked like and googling her (I've got to stop using that damn search engine of the Machine) lead me to the site Constructive Anarchy. This site is pretty humorous and reminded me of a few additional things about the lovely McCain like that he actively opposed and voted against creating a national Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Apparently, with the exception of some photos posted by the Washington Post chronicling McCain's life, there are surprisingly few pictures of Carol McCain online. The thing is though, she was a professional swimsuit/underwear model before this. A gazillion people must have pictures of her in magazines, on calendars, pin-up posters, etc., in their attics. But, even with McCain being a public figure for years now and despite the fact that this is his second try for the White House, none are online? Can we say weird?! Moreover, none of McCain's philandering past has received mention on any of the mainstream networks that I know of. I asked people about this after I read it and they said that they had no idea he had a history of infidelity, that he was still married to Carol when he was running around with Cindy, or that Cindy had a drug problem and stole drugs from a charity organization. These kinds of things are apparently not as newsworthy as Edwards' inability to keep his pants or whether Michelle Obama is proud of everything this country does or not.

I would argue that basically none of these boys can keep their pants on, so I don't really care who the latest person to have had an affair is...I just want some equitable coverage when it comes to the candidates. Even better, let's just talk about the issues and stop the character attacks, warranted or not. So Edwards was sleeping around...does that suddenly mean that the issue he has put so much energy into, that of eliminating the poverty that affects so many in this country, isn't actually an issue at all? McCain's filandering ways are also much less important to me than whether he would, as president, continue the unchecked and inhumane military actions of the Bush administration.