As was pointed out yesterday by the Christian Science Monitor, the McCain campaign was called out for lying about the purported urging of Cindy McCain by Mother Teresa herself to adopt two children at her orphanage back in 1991. Turns out, McCain never met or even spoke with Mother Teresa on that trip.
Once confronted by the Monitor about the deception, the campaign quickly erased such claims from the website, as it did with Cindy's family recipes, which were proved to be lifted from the Food Network.
But after doing some research, this deception was no careless accident, but rather another shameless and deliberate attempt by the campaign to reinvent and embellish the McCain family history in time for his 2008 presidential bid.
Here's how the McCain adoption was described by them prior to the 2008 presidential race:
Newsweek (Nov. 15, 1999, Cindy McCain's Own Story):
On finding a child while running a relief mission to Bangladesh in 1991:
I was working in Dhaka, and a friend of mine from Arizona had said to me, Look, while you're there, do me a favor. Mother Teresa has an orphanage in Dhaka. Would you mind seeing if they need any help? And I said, Sure. We finally found the orphanage, and we saw 150 newborns on one floor. And a lot of them were sick. And the nuns said, [This little girl with a cleft palate]--can't you take her and get her medical help? And I thought, well, sure I can, I can do that.
CNBC (Feb 12, 2000, Tim Russert Interview with the McCains):
Mrs. McCAIN: She's--our daughter Bridget is eight years old. I found her in Mother Teresa's orphanage when she was 10 weeks old in Bangladesh. She has a cleft palate; she had some other problems. And the nuns persuaded me to bring her home, and I did. I--I could do that. I was able to do that. And literally on board the flight home from Bangkok to Los Angeles, not having spoken to my husband, I decided I couldn't c--I had to--I couldn't let her go. I had--she chose me. So she's ours now. I came home and presented my husband with a new daughter that he didn't know he had.
Vanity Fair (November 2004, The Trashing of John McCain):
In 1991, when Cindy McCain was on a relief mission to Bangladesh, she was asked by one of Mother Teresa's nuns to help a young orphan with a cleft palate. Flying her to the U.S. for surgery, Cindy realized she couldn't give her up. At the Phoenix airport, she broke it to her husband, and they eventually adopted the child. But few people knew that story. In the words of McCain's national campaign manager, Rick Davis, a smear doesn't have "to be true to be effective."
Now see how the story changed at the beginning of 2008:
The Sunday Mail (Feb. 3, 2008, Dark past no barrier for Cindy):
``While working at Mother Teresa's orphanage in the early 1990s, I stumbled upon the most beautiful little girl I'd ever seen,'' she said. ``She had a terrible cleft palate. She had problems with her feet. She had problems with her hands. She had all kinds of problems.
``As only Mother Teresa can, she prevailed upon me to take this baby and another baby to the United States for medical care.''
The Sunday Telegraph (Feb. 3, 2008, Cindy McCain: pills, ills, beer and the White House)
It was on a trip to Bangladesh in 1991 that she adopted Bridget. On Friday she recounted to voters in Missouri and Illinois how Mother Teresa persuaded her to return home with the child. "I just could not let her go. The only thing was, I had not told my husband. When I got back, he asked me 'Where will she go?' and I said: 'I thought she could come to our house.'
Digital Journal (Jun 15, 2008, Can We Trust Cindy McCain to Represent American Women?):
Mrs. McCain has been involved in charity work from clearing landmines, to starting a charity to help children who need facial reconstruction. She has been inspired by her daughter she adopted from Bangladesh who needed extreme care after being born with a cleft palate. The adoption was prompted by Mother Teresa herself who implored Cindy to adopt the little girl. She did so without first consulting John McCain because of her compassion for the girl and her respect for Mother Teresa.
But the most damning evidence of a deliberate attempt to concoct this story comes from cached versions of the McCain campaign website.
Here's how Cindy's campaign bio reads on the website as late as November 9, 2004:
As an advocate for children's health care needs, Cindy H. McCain founded the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT) in 1988. The AVMT provided emergency medical and surgical care to impoverished children throughout the world. Cindy led 55 medical missions to third world and war-torn countries during AVMT's seven years of existence. During one of those missions, on a visit to Mother Teresa's Orphanage Cindy agreed to bring two babies in need of medical attention back to the United States. One of those babies is now a happy and healthy little girl named Bridget McCain.
Now compare that to the change made on the website on February 3, 2008 -- the same day the stories above by The Sunday Mail and The Sunday Telegraph were printed:
As an advocate for children's health care needs, Cindy founded and ran the American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT) from 1988 to 1995. AVMT provided emergency medical and surgical care to impoverished children throughout the world. Cindy led 55 medical missions to third world and war-torn countries during AVMT's seven years of existence. On one of those missions, Mother Teresa convinced Cindy to take two babies in need of medical attention to the United States. One of those babies is now their adopted daughter, 15 year old Bridget McCain.
Notice the obvious change in the one sentence that depicts the circumstances of the adoption.
The instances of the dishonest efforts to create a McCain family portrait are growing. The campaign previously had to scrub its website of Cindy's family recipes when it was discovered in April that they were largely cut and paste from the Food Network.
At the time, they blamed an intern for the problem. I wonder who they will now blame for Cindy McCain's own words?
Are these indicative of the McCain family values?
UPDATE: Seems that Rick Warren told Larry King on Monday night that the Mother Teresa story was one of three times during Saturday's forum that McCain teared-up. They're liars and actors.
Mark Nickolas is the Managing Editor of Political Base, and this story was from his original post, "The Anatomy of a Deception: How The McCains Changed Their Baby Adoption Story Just Before 2008 Bid"
Follow Mark Nickolas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mnickolas
Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Mother Teresa: One of the Greatest Saints Ever
She stole drugs from a non-profit that she ran that provided medical supplies. She was hooked on pain killers and when the theft was discovered, she was forced to resign. I only hear this raised by a few folks in AZ...
It's okay to have a problem and "get clean" but Cindy is no saint -
So, I make my pros and cons list. Call in and make a contribution, vote and PRAY~
When McCain met Cindy a wealthy Socialite at a party, he lied about his age (he is 20 years her senior) he shaved off 10 years!
Lately, the "Swift Boat" propagandists er campaign is trying to imply that Obama wasn't born on American soil therefore doesn't qualify for Presidency.
Truth be known, McCain was born in the Panama Canal area where his father worked to oversee the USA's assets in building a link for our import/exports. WHO wasn't born on American Soil?
Truth be known, Cindy McCain bypassed the government of Bangledesh and the USA, she put baby Bridget on a private airplane, thereby avoiding immigration, obtaining a visa for Bridget, etc.
What can the USCIS do once the baby was in the USA getting medical care under the guardianship of a Wealthy Politician's wife?
If people understood how difficult and how expensive it is to internationally adopt, this would erk you more. The stacks of paperwork required and layers of bureacracy we must go through.
Our country (and others) have two sets of rules: one set is for the rich and famous like Madonna (who paid the malawi government $1 million for David) Jolie (who with 3 international adoptions) one in Cambodia through Seattle International Agency, later closed down because of fraud in Cambodia, second in Ethiopia, she announced the birth mother died of AIDs, this was a LIE, the bio mother is alive. Last was Vietnam, who right after the adoption closed down to the USA because of fraud and children not being properly relinquished orphans.
Rich people lead far less stressful lives.
A) they use their power, contacts, influence and money to get out of criminal investigations, and minor offenses
B) they have teams of attorneys that watch out for them and handle all legal issues.
C) they never have to choose the lesser of items due to price
D) they dont have to worry about paying bills
E) they can eat however they want
F) they can pay for a lifestyle that is healthier
G) they can pay for dental, cosmetic, medical procedures to fix issues, or improve some things.
H) they dont have to tell their kids "sorry no sports this year, or no dance or music lessons, and no family vacation for the 5th yr in a row."
Yeah, McCain and his wife are just regular joes like the rest of us. Keep feeding those droppings to us.
I sure hope there is follow-up on this, Zoe13.
In most current accounts John McCain claims he had no prior knowledge of their arrival, as he did in dadmag.com in April 2006.
He was asked: You knew about your wife’s decision before hand?
McCain: (laughs) No. She arrived and said “Say hello to your new little daughter.”
While an article in the Arizona Star from December 25, 1991 says: The senator didn’t learn he was about to become a father again until his wife called from Bangkok, Thailand.
While the first story is already absurd and against common and ethical adoption practice, the fact the story has shifted over time, makes me question if this story is invented to cover up John McCain’s use of political influence to get Bridget to the US, circumventing proper procedures.
I wrote a longer account about this case on my own website: http://poundpuplegacy.org/node/20784
I suppose this post is a self-declaration - I'm not going to continue to latch on to any story in which McCain's camp makes a misstep. In being mindful of the larger good - to not play typical partisan politics - i'd like to keep myself from getting worked up over this sort of minutia.
If Cindy can embellish the adoption story -- I am sure that it will be ok for Obama to embellish his stance against the war in 2002 -- or Biden can embellish his resume again.
At the end of the day -- the McCain's adopted two children in desperate need
And now this in today's LA Times:
"In 1974, Reagan invited McCain to speak at a governor's prayer breakfast in Sacramento. The former prisoner of war told the story of a fellow captive who had scratched a prayer on a cell wall. Ronald and Nancy Reagan were reduced to tears. It was "the most moving speech I had ever heard," Reynolds said."
So now it's not a guard, it's a fellow captive??? With a prayer on a cell wall?
That's a lot of scratching, folks.
These people are blatantly dishonest. Mrs. McCain is secretive to avoid outright dishonesty. She just lies by omission.