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McCain Family Values: Sister? I Don't Have No Stinkin' Sister!
Ask Cindy Hensley McCain about her childhood and she'll tell you this:
"I grew up with my dad," she said then. "I'm an only child. My father was a cowboy, and he really loved me very much, but I think he wanted a son occasionally."
Except she didn't.
McCain's father was also a businessman — and twice a father.
"I'm upset," Kathleen Portalski says. "I'm angry. It makes me feel like a nonperson, kind of."
Who Is Kathleen Hensley Portalski?
Documents show Kathleen Anne Hensley was born to Jim and Mary Jeanne Hensley on Feb. 23, 1943. They had been married for six years when Kathleen was born.
Jim Hensley was a bombardier on a B-17, flying over Europe during World War II.
He was injured and sent to a facility in West Virginia to recuperate. During that time, while still married to Mary Jeanne, Hensley met another woman — Marguerite Smith. Jim divorced Mary Jeanne and married Marguerite in 1945.
Cindy Lou Hensley was born nine years later, in 1954.
She may have grown up as an only child, but so did her half sister, Kathleen, who was raised by a single parent.
[snip]
Something about that story sounds awfully damn familiar. What could it be?
When Hensley died in 2000, his will named not only Portalski but also a daughter of his wife Marguerite from her earlier marriage. So, Cindy McCain may be the only product of Jim and Marguerite's marriage, but she is not the only child of either.
She was, however, the sole inheritor of his considerable estate.
Kathleen Portalski was left $10,000, and her children were left nothing. It's a fact Nicholas Portalski says his sister discovered the hard way.
"What she found in town — on the day of or the day before or the day after his funeral — was that the credit card didn't work anymore," Nick says.
As always, there is more to the story here.
So much for "I am my (brothers') and sisters' keeper."
Comments (4)
Gotta love McCain Family Values™! If there's one thing I truly wish Obama's campaign would do, it's drive home the family differences between the Obamas (self-made, non-descript beginnings) and the McCains (privileged to the nth degree, no serious achievements on their own). I'd make this a major issue with commercials, appearances, direct hammers from Barack *and* Michelle (saw her on the stump locally at CMU - excellent speaker!).
I find it mind-numbing that people dog Michelle (a woman from a working-class family, whose brother is a Princeton graduate and now a Pac-10 men's basketball coach, who's never been in any trouble, who made herself into an associate at one of the world's most powerful law firms - all before she ever laid eyes on Barack Obama).
August 19, 2008 12:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sheesh, I read this, and I find another post just a few posts down! What is wrong with you people?! Don't you know anything about Obama's own background? Don't you know Obama has half-siblings in Africa that he'd really like to maintain a lot of distance from?! Quit dragging this shit into the campaign, it's the last thing he wants. You're not helping, you're hurting; play this up and he's going to have to deal with stuff worse than Billy Carter/Roger Clinton type shit.
August 19, 2008 12:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Difference is Obama has never claimed to be 'only child'.
It is spooky tho' how Cindy's fathers story is so like her and John's story.
Sad, very sad.
Wonder how McCain's relationship is with his other relatives (besides his mommy)?
August 19, 2008 3:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
I found the statement "My father was a cowboy, and he really loved me very much, but I think he wanted a son occasionally."
quite puzzling, then I remembered that "Brokeback" movie. LOL
But she probably meant that he owned many ranches, too.
August 19, 2008 6:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
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