Cindy McCain Terrifies Vietnamese Kids Into Smiling

lthough the big news story today about Cindy McCain is her manufactured anger at Michelle Obama's "proud to be an American" comment, what's getting scant attention is Cindy's trip to Vietnam. No, she's not returning to the Hanoi Hilton to get a refresher course on how to torture her husband. She's there's to support Operation Smile, a group that provides facial reconstruction surgery to children born with deformities.

Sure, sending the cosmetically sliced and diced Cindy might be an odd choice for facial reconstruction. But the woman knows her smiles. Check out this photo of some cute village kids, post-Cindy treatment:

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[ernestv]

If this is what it means to be a democrat, to make fun of children and to make political fun of someone trying to do good.... well you've given me yet another reason to leave the democratic party.... I always thought that democrats were above this type of bullsh*t...

[eden4barack08]

Excuse me, but where does it say that this is what it means to be a democrat???

[eden4barack08]

You've got to take the photos of those children off, please!!!! Nothing can be funny at the expense of unfortunate children!!

[yallerdog]

Cindy and John McCain are doing wonderful work supporting Operation Smile. She could easily skipped the trip to Vietnam and done something vacuous like appear on a morning chat show . Really, this website and its participants slandering McCains wife by reprinting vile slurs and calling her a junkie is just like Rove's attack on McCain in 1990 or the crap Fox News, Limbaugh, etc do. And you call yourselves progressive? You call yourselves Democrats? Leave the comedy to Stewart and Colbert or the guy that created the Obama seal - you just aint got it.

[ebanks84]

I'm sure Operation Smile is worthy of this acknowledgement but what does that have to do with the title of this article? I never got the connection at all. What does "terrifying" have to do with anything? What are you trying to say? I might be totally lame here, but the headline complete lost me when I read the story.

Did you mean that the way Cindy looks is terrifying? If so, I think that's absolutely cruel. We all know she's nipped and tucked to the extreme, but terrifying?

[vocalist]

I find the way this article is written, absolutely cruel and inapproprate.

[AryanMjolnir]

Inappropriate and corny-I love it.

[eden4barack08]

Oh, this is TERRIBLY in bad taste!!!

What were you thinking????

[ultracrepidarian]

Lose this. It's not funny.

[Viper]

PULL this link.. its not fiunny.. its bad taste and makes DEMS looik like Swift Boaters.

We are suppose to be better than this!

Regards

[Theda]

I'm not voting for McCain. I don't like him. But I find this particular sort of attack on his wife to be very offensive. She's helping children who desperately need medical attention, and to ridicule that is similar to what the "Swiftboaters" did to John Kerry.
I admire Mrs. McCain's charity, even though I don't want her to be First Lady.
You don't seen Lynne Cheney doing anything like this, do you?

[vocalist]

The Post is becoming a national enquirer, now Hillary has bowed out. They are attacking anyone who dares to be in Obama`s path, even if it is Cindy, the other wife who is not running.
By the way I am for Obama, but this is not a very smart way to be inclusive.
It is called gutter politics.

[uheardme]

You could be a republican troll as far as I'm concerned. No one seemed to care about the blatantly racist attacks on Mrs. Obama..

[ThePhilosopher]

For the most part, I find 236.com to be comprised of really bad jokes that are simply not funny, though usually they are harmless. In this case (and I really hope this comment makes it by the moderators) I find the article to not only be unamusing, but also downright offensive. Now, let me be clear; I'm a liberal and a strong supporter of Obama. I'm not fond of John McCain nor am I particularly fond of Cindy McCain. However, Cindy's charity appears to be a very beneficial one which helps children who live in conditions unknown to those of us living in the US. Regarldess of her politics and what else I, and others, may think about her, Cindy's work in regards to this charity is highly commendable. To mock her, and to mock the children she helps, is sad and downright cruel. We're supposed to be liberals! We're supposed to applaud charities which help the downtrodden, particularly when the downtrodden are children. How can anyone find this even remotely funny?

[plages]

She's also fond of saying: "Let Them Drink Beer!"

[wordvarc]

.

Cindy's beautician needs to diminish the arch of her eyebrows to avoid the repeated Cruella deVille associations.

Hide your Dalmatians!

.

[loki]

In many asian cultures they smile when they are very angry. So a smile may be the same as the dog wagging its tail while it wants to take a chunk out of your face.

[vocalist]

excuse me ?

[Turtleluv6]

Good laugh I wonder tough did she do this much for the daughter that is never shown in the family gatherings or pictures. Think about that before you talk about mean and distasteful.

She keeps her daughter hidden but is out taking photo's with those that she feels she benefits from. Be real people think about it......

[gage]

Show some proof of this. Do you have some photos that show she's been excluded from gatherings?

[pupbayer]

She's a minor, only like 16, so perhaps they nor she want her in the public eye. In the 2000 campaign there were a lot of ugly remarks about her.

She did do an interview for Scholastic News in December, 2007 about leading a regular life even though she is McCain's daughter. http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3748634

The Clintons were accused of "pimping" their adult daughter when she campaigned for her mother and now you act like something is wrong that the McCain's aren't trotting their minor aged daughter out more.

I guess your next question is why don't we see the Obama girls more.

[Rendon76]

The charity of he choice was facial reconstruction. I guess. We all gotta be beautiful, I guess. I don't mind a women who's purpose is to keep herself beautiful and I guess this principle has carried over to her choice of charity. You know, I guess, it's something.

[gage]

HuffPost's Pick

Operation Smile performs surgery on children with cleft palates, which can impair eating and drinking, and extend up onto the face. Children with severe facial deformities such as this often don't go outside, even to go to school, in some of these countries.

There's an interesting story behind why she takes a special interest in Operation Smile. In 1991 she took a volunteer medical team to Bangladesh to perform surgeries on orphans at Mother Theresa's facility. There were two infant girls there who would each need years of operations, and the nuns begged the team to take the babies back to the US. One had heart problems, and the other had a cleft palate so severe that the nuns could hardly feed her.

Cindy McCain brought both babies back to the US. She wound up adopting the one with the cleft palate (Bridget), and another couple adopted the other girl. Both babies underwent a series of surgeries, and the McCains paid all the hospital bills for both babies.

Both girls are healthy and attending high school in Phoenix.

But to some people it's just a big joke. As I always say, no good deed goes unpunished.

[LettuceB1]

I enjoy a good laugh, especially when it's at McBush's expense, but I have to agree with you on this one, making funny of children who suffer from serious medical conditions isn't the kind of humor that we should condone.

[pupbayer]

Operation Smile treats children with cleft lips and cleft palates who are terribly deformed. Did you know you can die from a severe cleft palate?

"We all gotta be beautiful." Unfortunately, surgery can't help your ugliness. It runs too deeply.

[LettuceB1]

However, medication might help you get over your ugliness. Or at lest help you get over yourself :)