Strollerderby : cindy mccain

Fey and McCain Raise Campaign Funds on QVC

Madeline Holler — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:42:00 GMT

John McCain and Sarah Palin went Live on QVC Saturday Night to sell pork cutting knives and a series of town hall commemorative plates in an effort to raise last-minute funds for McCain's campaign.

Check out the model showing the Fein-Gold Jewelry. Who knew she had a sense of humor?

Here's McCain talking campaign "strategy" and rebranding himself on Weekend Update.

Video: NBC [via HuffPo]

Morning News: Oprah Makes an Election Eve Comeback!

Madeline Holler — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Oprah, girl, where have you been? Still chasing The Secret or what? Because you went and got your good friend Barack Obama all arena-ready during the primaries, put your hand over your heart and teared up, and then sort of dropped out of the presidential race. We feared you'd never get appointed secretary of book clubs if you turned your back on "the one" ("that one"?).

Yeah, yeah, we know you made a bunch of your viewers mad, what with passing up your good friend Bill's wife and also totally ignoring the ladies on the right. Did you remember your spirit (and billion dollar empire) and get out of politics as fast as you got in?

No matter, you're back! At least for the weekend.

Political spouses make the news this morning!

Michelle Obama told Larry King that McCain's "that one" comment didn't bother her. (That woman can so rise above.)

Cindy McCain's feeling much less generous when it comes to Obama, who she said has the ability to send a cold chill down her spine.

Today's itty bitty Daily Palin is about Sarah's other half (no, not John McCain ... her husband).

Todd Palin has finally answered questions about his role in Troopergate. He also attended a rally in Alaska with youngest daughter Piper. (I don't care who you're voting for, how cute is she?)

AIG is ready for a fresh round of handouts from the government. They've blown through billions already and say they need $37 billion more and they swear this time it's not for pretty hands and feet.

If you're paying a mortgage and/or don't live under a rock, you already know this. One in six homeowners owe more on their house than its currently worth.

In a show of too little too late, the school board in Gloucester "Pregnancy Pact," Mass., has voted to distribute contraception at its schools.

Also rethinking their strategy is the Nebraska legislature. All these teens getting abandoned at safe haven's is kind of making them feel weird. Of the 17 dropped off so far, only 4 have been under the age of 10.

The rate of overseas adoption in the U.S. is declining. And Brangelina won't be able to pick up all the slack.

Oh, random newsbit: This woman claims she's Elvis's half-sister. Don't you sort of want it to be true?

Morning News: Did McCain Refuse to Shake Hands With 'That One'?

Morning News: You Naughty Alaskans!

Morning News: Who's Winning With Only 30 Days Left?

Sarah Palin's a Doodler

Photos: smh.au; adn.com

McCain Talks to the Gays: Part Two, Adoption

Shannon LC Cate — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:46:00 GMT

First of all, let's review what John McCain told the New York Times when first asked about the question of gay adoption in July:

Q: President Bush believes that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt children. Do you agree with that?

Mr. McCain: I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no I don’t believe in gay adoption.

Q: Even if the alternative is the kid staying in an orphanage, or not having parents.

Mr. McCain: I encourage adoption and I encourage the opportunities for people to adopt children I encourage the process being less complicated so they can adopt as quickly as possible. And Cindy and I are proud of being adoptive parents.

Q: But your concern would be that the couple should a traditional couple.

Mr. McCain: Yes.

McCain tried to backpeddle a bit later when he found out how very uncool was his assertion that a kid would be better off in an orphange than with gay adoptive parents. But last week, he told the Washington Blade:

"I hope my comments are not misinterpreted. I respect the hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbian people who are doing their best to raise the children they have adopted. As someone who adopted a child, Cindy and I know better than most couples the amazing satisfaction that comes from providing love to an unwanted child. I believe a child is best raised by a mother and father because of the unique contributions that they make together to the development of a child."

It sounds pretty much the same to me, except to add that he respects us for doing our "best" in spite of being second-class parents (unlike him and Cindy). I guess that probably means he's not in favor of actually taking our existing kids out of our homes. How very reasurring.

But my real problem with McCain's words is his characterization of adopted children as "unwanted." My two adopted children were not unwanted. They were not unwanted by their first mothers who were forced by circumstances into placing them for adoption, and who still very much love and want them in their lives. They were not unwanted by us or the long list of waiting prospective parents at our adoption agency. Assuming that children placed for adoption--even abandoned--are "unwanted" is a leap to claiming to know the minds and hearts of any number of people with very little to go on. It is to paint a child--in McCain's case, his own child-as somehow less deserving of love, or as "lucky" to have a family.

This attitude, common though it is (and, as adoptive parents reading this know, it is all too common), hurts adoptees. How do you think McCain's daughter feels when she hears her father call her "unwanted?"

Does he mean it the way I've written about it here? He'd probably insist that he certainly doesn't. But he clearly intends to portray himself as heroic--loving above and beyond the call of biological duty--for being an adoptive parent. Adoptive parents are not heroic. They are just parents, like any others. Their children are not lucky (in fact, adoptive children have experienced unfortunate losses by definition), they deserve a loving family as much as anyone else. If after all these years of adoptive parenting, McCain still doesn't get this, it's not surprising he doesn't get same-sex adoption either.

Morning News: Tina and Sarah and Cindy -- Oh My!

Madeline Holler — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:30:00 GMT

In today's Morning News, we still can't shake our Daily Palin habit. A good thing too, because things got real funny with her/"her" this weekend! However, Cindy McCain wasn't laughing after a Friday appearance on The View. In fact, she's mad and using some pretty gruesome language. This brings us to ridding the world of fat, one back roll at a time. Plus, lead in kids toys, Ike, gas spikes, bank busts ... and more.

First, a little late-night TV first thing in the morning!

The LA Times reports Palin and her people, who watched the Saturday Night Live segment aboard a flight from Nevada to Colorado, were not amused. Really? Palin's hero Hillary laughed at herself on SNL all the time! Palin also took a beating over the weekend as reporters dug deeper into her background. The NY Times reported [here via MSNBC] she hired her high school classmate to run the agriculture department. Qualifications? BFF Franci's love of cows! (Awwww.)

The real Cindy McCain says the women of The View, who interviewed her husband and, later, the couple, on Friday's show, "picked our bones clean." She was venting at a weekend GOP fundraiser in Michigan and you can hear her comments here. Funny, the big bone-picking question was from Barbara Walters: she wanted to know how many houses the couple has. Cindy! You've had time to prepare for that question! American wants to know, too!

By the way, this guy thinks McCain's campaign has stretched the truth a tad too much in their ads, which is pretty rich coming from him.

The other candidate -- remember him? -- raised a record $66 million in August and a half million new donors. Fresh week, fresh money, could fresh ads be far behind?

So those foreclosures you keep seeing on your street? Yeah, well, they're nothing compared to what Lehman Brothers is going through. They couldn't find a buyer either and are now heading toward liquidation and who knows what it all means. Oh, and Merrill Lynch? Soon to be acquired by Bank of America. Would a little regulation in the mortgage markets have been so bad after all?

Hurricane Ike has rendered Galveston uninhabitable and gas prices for the rest of the nation are once again likely to hit a peak.

Rules are tightening on lead content in kids toys. The new lead safety standards take effect in February (AFTER to holidays -- ahem!) but apply to all toys regardless of when they're made. Companies have until after the first of the year to sell off their inventories including to overseas markets. Does that seem like a tighter lead standard to you?

Lets end on a lighter note -- or, if not lighter, firmer and better looking in body-hugging clothing. Plastic surgeons have come up with a new procedure to rid the world of sad, sagging backs. It's the upper-back lift! They even manage to hide the scar along your bra line.

Morning News: Sarah P. Soothes Some, Induces Spit-Takes in Others

Morning News: More Sex, Some Drugs, and Rockin' Oil

Morning News: The Daily Grind of Sex and Politics ... and Lipstick on Pigs

Morning News: Fully Caffeinated With a Hint of Sarah Palin

Photo: Newsday

John McCain Doesn't "Believe In" Gay Parents

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:16:00 GMT

One would think that John McCain would be the most likely candidate to understand the importance of making unwanted babies into wanted ones, since he and his wife have an adopted daughter. But his support of adoption only goes as far as his ideology—or his political interests—will allow. He recently stated, “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don't believe in gay adoption.”

I’m so glad that writer Terrence Heath, who recently adopted a baby with his husband, thoroughly took McCain to task so I don’t have to. In an elegant essay on Huffington Post, Heath points to the arguments raised in the California Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex marriage, including the assertion that adoptive parents are just as “adept” at raising children as biological parents—and to argue that gay parents shouldn’t adopt is a slippery slope to being anti-adoption. Heath includes stats from numerous studies showing that gay parents are just as likely as straight parents to raise healthy, happy kids.

Lastly, Heath points to the tragedy of three-year-old Turner Jordan Nelson, whose father killed him by throwing him over a bridge in the midst of a nasty custody battle. According to the thinking of the anti-gay parent faction (including McCain), this father is a “real" parent because he is a straight man who “created” his son through vaginal intercourse, while Heath and his husband, a loving couple committed to always doing what's best for their child, are not.

Fortunately for unwanted babies everywhere, parents like Heath exist whether McCain believes in them or not.

Photo: aglp.org

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/archive/2008/07/03/mrs-and-mrs-degeneres-and-a-male-perspective-on-the-name-game.aspx

Political Nanny Cam: McCain Asked Whether He Called Cindy the 'C-Word'

Madeline Holler — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:28:00 GMT

Awhile back, Political Nanny scolded John McCain for calling his wife a "trollope" and the c-word (yes, THAT c-word) in front of a group of reporters back in 1992. The press didn't pick up on it back when it happened, and McCain still hasn't had to answer for it. In fact, McCain has had to answer for very, very little, but let's focus on his temper and language.

So at a townhall meeting in Iowa last week, one guy thought he'd confront the issue: he asked whether it was true. Watch the results. Feel the disappointment.

What do you think? Should Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos tag-team McCain and demand answers?

If you're the kind of person who takes Freudian slips (and Howard Stern) seriously, you may enjoy this little clip from the Howard Stern Show on YouTube, wherein you can hear McCain say the c-word, albeit NOT aimed at his wife.

[via HuffPo]

Political Nanny: Cindy McCain Says Husband Doesn't Have a Temper

Madeline Holler — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:09:00 GMT

Posted by Political Nanny

Cindy McCain played co-host on ABC's The View this morning where she told the ladies -- including a silent and reverend Elisabeth Hasselbeck -- that John McCain doesn't have a temper. And he's never unleashed that non-temper temper on her (so the c-word was a term of endearment ... now we get it.)

Oh, Cindy, come now. Political Nanny has watched your Johnny enough to know that his nickname "McNasty" isn't irony.

She also says the biggest misconception about her is that she doesn't like her role as campaigning spouse. She loves it. Then goes on to say, kind of aw-shucks-y, who could imagine a girl from Phoenix ... growing up ... being in her position.

Lady, you're a beer distributor magnate's daughter. You're rich. On behalf of all able-minded people, Political Nanny would like to say WE could have imagined it. It's actually very imagineable.

Still, it's fun to hear her talk. She hasn't been terribly vocal, like the other spouses. So it's nice to put a voice/speaking style with the face.

Political Nanny will search for the video and post it, and also try to uncover what Whoopi was so anxious to ask. Go here to watch the video.

Political Nanny: McCain Secret Family Recipe Not So Secret, Not So Family

Madeline Holler — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:28:00 GMT

Posted by Political Nanny

John McCain's campaign website features all the boring political stuff like policy and stances, personal statements and press coverage. But it also has juicier stuff -- literally! -- in the form of McCain family recipes.

Orrrrr, at least it did. Naughty Cindy McCain's Passion Fruit Mousse recipe was actually lifted straight from the Food Network website. Hey, Political Nanny cooks plenty from that exact same site -- and even passes it off as her own. But not in written form. And only to small groups of dinner guests.

The campaign has since scrubbed away the greasy bits of this campaign controversy from McCain's website, but not before Huffington Post captured the recipes in screen grabs, which you can view here (scroll down).

Oh, Cindy, nobody believes you chop your own Napa cabbage or whisk egg whites into stiff peaks with your own lovely hands. Which is why Political Nanny would have gone with a generic vinegary BBQ sauce and "secret" tips for a flakey apple pie crust (use cold butter) to fill the fluff portion of the website. Incidentally, McCain's campaign blames the lifted recipes on interns.

Other infringing recipes include Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage Salad (the McCain's call it "slaw") and Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms.

Photo: McCainblogette.com

Political Nanny's Playground: Candidate Love

Madeline Holler — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:05:00 GMT

They say politics make strange bedfellows. But what about politicians? With few exceptions, the slate of 2008 presidential candidates -- both already out and those still in -- hooked up with some beauties.

Political Nanny's opened the pages of her election scrapbook again today, this time for a peek at candidates in love. Looking through the pictures might be like walking in on your parents, so consider this a warning. There's Cindy and John McCain in a hotel room, Bill and Hillary in a hammock, Janet and Mike get beasty, and Michelle and Barack being America's newest sweethearts.

Of course, nothing makes me miss Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich more than a post full of pictures without them smooching. So I've included one here.