Chelsea's still having fun now that there's no more campaign partying (at least until Senator Obama announces his veep choice.) She's been chilling in black tie with Mr. and Mrs. Fresh Prince, for example, even though Will Smith called Obama last December to sign up for the winning team in the Democratic race. Guess you have to forgive and forget fast when you're a First Daughter wannabe.
Senator Obama, appearing with Hilary Clinton at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C yesterday, said that thanks to the hard work of many people, his daughters now take it for granted that we could have a woman and/or an African American president: ...He told of being surprised that his 9-year-old daughter Malia had been well aware of the historic nature of the Clinton-Obama duel. Her father, she knew, could be the first African American president. But she also observed that Clinton could be the first woman. "Then she said, it's about time, and rolled over and went to bed," Obama said.
Photo Source: Barack Obama via Creative Commons.
Meghan McCain and her mother stopped in Cambodia on their Asia trip (which has been"profoundly affecting," as Meghan says), visiting a school that provides vocational training so that young people can get jobs once they graduate.
One of the many reasons I love mccainblogette is because photographer Heather Brand's front-row candids reveal the mother heart of Cindy McCain. This moment doesn't seem at all staged, for example, and it's gorgeous.
Barack Obama told Rolling Stone magazine that while rap music has helped to desegregate America, he worries about some of the lyrics:
"I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics," he said, "but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music."Senator Obama will appear on the cover of the magazine's July 10th issue, and already has their endorsement. Wonder what the oldest First Daughter wannabe left in the race, Sidney McCain, music mogul and general manager of V2 records, thinks of that?
He said hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and rappers Jay-Z and Ludacris were "great talents and great businessmen."
"It would be nice if I could have my daughters listen to their music without me worrying that they were getting bad images of themselves," he added.
Michelle Robinson was mentoring Barack Obama at a law firm in 1989 when he asked her out. They went to the Art Institute, strolled down Michigan Avenue, and watched Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing."
John and Cindy McCain had a more complicated first meeting, but the short version is that in 1979 at a military reception in Hawaii he talked her into joining him for drinks afterwards at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
Strange to think that without those two dates, sparrowblog wouldn't be hosting all you google, live, msn, and yahoo searchers on the hunt for news about Meghan, Jimmy, Jack, Bridget, Sasha, and Malia. And then what would I do with myself?
Reporter Holly Bailey of Newsweek tagged along with Cindy McCain and daughter Meghan during their recent trip to Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. In her fascinating profile of the Senator's wife, Bailey describes the two times that reporters have seen Mrs. McCain break down on the campaign: McCain lost the South Carolina primary after a vicious dirty-tricks campaign, in which his opponents smeared Cindy as a drug addict and spread rumors that Bridget was really McCain's illegitimate child. Cindy cried in full view of reporters...
When Jimmy was in Iraq during the primary season, Cindy, like every mother whose son is at war, lived to hear his voice. She kept her BlackBerry in her hands at all times so she wouldn't miss his call. When she went onstage, she would hand the phone to a campaign aide who would stand with it in her line of sight. "She slept with that BlackBerry in her hand," says Harper. Earlier this year Cindy approached the senator backstage at a campaign event. She was on the brink of tears. "He called," she told McCain. "I missed it."
Bottom line: go ahead and mess with the husband, people, but not with his babies.
Meghan McCain's face always seems so happy when she's with her mother. She and the blogettes joined Cindy McCain on a trip to Vietnam to visit a center run by Operation Smile, an international organization that provides surgery for kids born with cleft palates.
The McCains reunited with Phuoc Thi Le, a girl Cindy McCain brought back to Arizona for surgery in 1997 -- five years after Bridget's journey from Bangladesh for the same operation. Le went back to her parents and Vietnam; Bridget, of course, who had been in an orphanage, stayed in Phoenix and became a McCain.
Appearing on The View, Michelle Obama shared the savvy response of her oldest daughter (Malia, 10) to a question about life as a First Daughter wannabe.
Question: Do you get nervous in front of crowds?
Malia Obama: I realize those people aren't here to see me. I'm just a kid ... They just think I'm cute. I wave and smile and then I'm out of there.
Doug McCain (sometimes called Doug Shepp) is a pilot with American Airlines who lives in Virginia Beach. He and his wife Ashley have two kids, a daughter at the University of North Carolina and a son at Norfolk Academy. That means "Aunt Bridget" (John McCain's 16-year-old daughter) is younger than one of her nieces, and might be about the same age as her nephew.
Doug and his family live near his Mom, Carol Shepp, who was McCain's first wife. According to this interview in Pilot Online, Ms. Shepp "not only sports a McCain bumper sticker on her car but also contributed to her ex-husband's campaign." How encouraging is that for the blended families of America?
Shannon Bae's newest mccainblogette production is set in Nashville, Tennessee, and includes scenes from a cowboy hat shopping trip and a song by John Rich of country music's Big and Rich:
I like how Sasha and Malia's Mom doesn't stress that the girls aren't paying much attention to Dad's sermon -- even though they're being photographed. But what's Malia reading?
After five years of voting as an Independent, Meghan McCain visited the State Capitol Executive Building in Phoenix with her Mom and officially joined the Republican party for Father's Day.
McCain's oldest daughter Sidney, who lives in Toronto and talks to Meghan regularly, also changed her party affiliation, as the New York Times reported:
Sidney, a registered Democrat until recently, has worked in the music business for years, and was the child who challenged Mr. McCain’s authority the most. She continues to debate him on a wide variety of issues.
“Sidney is a character,” Mr. Woods said. “I think she stretched him a lot. When I was hanging around John, his favorite movie was ‘Gigi.’ Sidney has been very involved in the entertainment industry and taken him to the award shows even though her interests have been quite divergent from his. He is very close to her as well.”
By many accounts, Mr. McCain’s daughters were the most resistant to his authority. “I was the boundary pusher,” Sidney said. “In high school I was very rebellious. I needed to look at all sides. At least he would hear me out.”
Meghan McCain, First Daughter in Hoping, is trying to emulate incumbent First Daughter Jenna Bush by publishing a children's book of her own. Savvy blogger and Columbia-trained journalist Meghan has written an illustrated biography of her father. Simon & Schuster will release the book in September. Congratulations, Meghan!
Can't a pair of daughters and their father enjoy a bike ride beside Lake Michigan without him getting a nasty fashion critique about looking geeky? Apparently not when he's got a 50-50 chance of becoming the next President. Good thing Malia and Sasha haven't reached the stage when everything your father does, is, and wears reeks of geek. Malia turns ten on July 4th, so that whole take on Dad is probably coming soon.
As Meghan McCain continues to get a front seat experience, I'm wondering when school gets out for Bridget because I'm hoping we see more of her this summer. And what about Jimmy (and Tess), Jack, Sidney, Andy, and Doug? Or maybe schmoozing and cruising with a Dad who's been in politics for decades doesn't seem exciting to any of Meghan's other sibs.
Speaking in Texas the day before her mother's big announcement, Chelsea spilled the beans: "My mom will be making a speech tomorrow supporting Senator Obama," she said. But is she pulling out of the public eye again and heading straight back to Manhattan? Doesn't seem like it. Here's what a Dallas Morning News blogger at the event scribbled in his notebook:
"We know that our work has just begun ... reaching out and registering more voters in November, more democratic voters, we know we need to be talking to be people about what is at stake, and all the reasons we're here... We have to elect Democrats across Texas, like Rick Noriega, and why we have to elect Democrats across our country, turn Texas blue and take back the White House."Sounds like Chelsea might be stumping for her party until November -- whether or not her Mom is the veep candidate.
If you're a faithful mccainblogette reader, you'll notice that Meghan often mentions or displays her favorite products -- we know she likes Macs, Blackberries, Uggs, Pop Tarts, Diet Doctor Pepper, and Sonic cherry limeade. Now if only Heather Brand would snap Meghan reading one of the First Daughter novels ...
With pastors and presidential candidates in both parties making headlines, maybe you're looking for the truth about what the Senators still in the running think about God, church, and ethics. The Pew Foundation gives us the scoop.
Cindy McCain has been MIA on the campaign trail lately, not turning up for her usual fun photo ops on daughter Meghan's blog. She's probably home with Bridget, who's finishing out the school year, and reconnecting with the rest of the family: two Yorkshire terriers, Lucy and Desi, two more dogs, a cat, and several parakeets. Since the family moved from the ranch house to the condo last summer, gone are the guinea pigs, snakes and an iguana that Jack walked around the house on a leash.
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