The Real Cindy McCain

For Cindy McCain, the Fun Is in the Fast Lane

ILLUSTRATION BY JOE CIARDIELLO FOR USN&WR

Her ramrod-straight posture, the coiffed hair, even the eyes sometimes referred to as chipped ice eyes... They all have Cindy McCain fighting the image of a Stepford Wife. In Vogue this month, the millionaire wife of Sen. John McCain lets her hair down, literally, while reclining barefoot, in comfortable jeans, on a deck chair. Just another staged photo op? Not necessarily. Cindy can cut loose, say the folks at Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Phoenix. The 53-year-old mother of four has developed a taste for the track since 2004, the year she suffered a stroke.

"My son Jack is the one who really made me get up after the stroke and push myself again," she tells Whispers. Jack happens to be a racing fan. In defensive-driving courses at Bondurant, Cindy rammed the cars of mock bad guys and took out roadblocks. "She was steady as a rock," says Mike McGovern, the school's chief instructor. Cindy was a "gung-ho student"—the first to volunteer to try out the skid car, which trains drivers to recover from spin outs. With Jack, who's enrolled in the U.S. Naval Academy, she even jumped in a Pontiac GTO at Bondurant to learn the swerving style of street racing called drifting.

"I learned that I could push my limits and exceed my goals," she says. "After the campaign, hopefully, we will be able to go out again."

She also drove the pace car at a NASCAR race this past summer.

Cindy has a heart of gold and has spent her life and her inherited money which she feels is both a gift and a responsibility with which to do good, investing in children.  She has spent her life doing charity work, especially for children, and gets down and dirty as she travels the world to places where she feels she is needed or can make a difference.  She is very hands on, not just walking through, as many do.  And she and husband John McCain walk the walk...  they adopted a little girl from India that they both say has added much more to their lives and their family than they to hers.

Cindy McCain is just as comfortable in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt as in haute couture. She can be the perfect polished lady, but has no problem being hands-on and getting dirty. She equally loves being a mom, hugging babies, helping dig a well, speaking on behalf of her chosen causes, campaigning with her husband and driving her race car.  Cindy is caring, devoted, determined and hard-working.  She is definitely multifaceted and is more than ready and able to be an effective First Lady!