Wednesday, June 11, 2008

First Wives Club: John and Carol McCain

How much do you know about Carol McCain, the wife of John McCain before Cindy? She now lives in Virginia Beach.

"[T]here is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator's presidential campaign. Had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain's first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.

It took Britian's Daily Mail to cover the story, while the conglomorates who own mainstream media push aside the story like McCain pushed aside his wife.

"My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25," Carol said, apparently benevolently.

"In 1979 while still married to Carol he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage.

Carol and her children were devastated. It was a complete surprise,' says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide.

Salon summed it up: "McCain's strategy worked perfectly: After chasing Cindy Hensley [and her Anheuser-Busch fortune] around the country for six months, he closed the deal late in the year, had a divorce by February and was married to Hensley shortly thereafter. Bingo! McCain was a candidate for Congress by early 1982, his coffers full, his home in the proper Arizona district purchased."