Written by  Don C. Reed:

STEM CELLS, AND JOHN MCCAIN'S FIRST WIFE

When Bill Clinton fooled around, the Republicans fought with all their 
strength to impeach him. .

But when John McCain cheated on his crippled wife, the GOP nominated him for 
President.

Did you know about McCain's first wife?  A former swimsuit model, Carol 
McCain was tall, willowy, beautiful-until a terrible car accident.

Flung through the windshield of her car, Carol McCain lay on the frozen 
ground all night. Her pelvis was broken. Both legs and an arm were 
shattered, she had massive internal injuries- the doctors despaired for her 
life.

Fortunately for Carol , Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot took over her 
medical bills: paying for her six months in hospital-- and 23 operations, 
necessary just to keep her alive. So many bone fragments had to be removed 
from her body that she lost five inches in height.

Carol McCain was disabled for life.

So when John McCain came home from the war in Viet Nam , how did he stand by 
the woman he promised to love and cherish till death did them part?

He began cheating on her, systematically and casually, with a variety of 
women.

Finally the still married McCain chose Carol's replacement, the 
movie-star-gorgeous Cindy, heiress to a fortune.

He divorced Carol,  married the heiress one month later, and his new 
father-in-law gave him a job as an  executive at his beer company-and John 
McCain was rich.

H. Ross Perot had this to say:

"McCain is the classic opportunist. always reaching for attention and glory. 
When he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a 
poster girl with big money."
-"The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind", Sharon 
Churcher, Daily Mail UK , June 8, 2008 .

To this day, Carol remains loyal to McCain, who pays her medical bills.

Now some people feel that McCain, as a former prisoner of war, is not to be 
criticized. Democrats always acknowledge John McCain's service, unlike the 
Rove-Republican attack machine and their Swift Boating tactics, continually 
smearing John Kerry's heroism in the same war.

But to my way of thinking, the fact that John McCain was a prisoner of war 
does not mean we forget everything else about the man.

John McCain deserves to be judged on his actions, his record, his positions 
and choices, and how his decisions will affect all our lives.

First, let me state my personal bias: why John McCain's essential 
abandonment of a disabled person affects me so deeply.

My son Roman Reed is disabled, a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders 
down because of a college football accident.

Every day I try to do something to advance the cause of stem cell research, 
because I know it works.

I have seen it. On March 1, 2002 , I held in my hand a laboratory rat which 
had been paralyzed, but which walked again, thanks to embryonic stem cells. 
That was in the Reeve-Irving Research Center , University of California at 
Irvine .

It has been so frustrating, these past eight years, having an anti-science 
President in the White House. The policies of George Bush policies are based 
on ideology and ultra-conservative religion, not the healing science our 
country so desperately needs.

But John McCain says he is different from Bush, that he supports embryonic 
stem cell research.

I don't trust him.

Different from Bush? Not a whole lot. McCain co-signed Senator Sam Brownback's 
bill to put scientists in jail for advanced stem cell research-he also chose 
Sarah Palin for his Vice President, and she is completely opposed.

With a new GOP platform calling for a complete ban on embryonic stem cell 
research, we could be worse off than we were under Bush.

McCain says one thing, and does another.

McCain says he supports the disabled-then votes against the Community Choice 
Act, which would have allowed disabled folks to be cared for in their own 
homes, instead of having to be institutionalized.

He likes to call himself a "maverick", reminding us that he once dared to 
opposed President George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. However, (and with 
McCain there is always a however) when it came time to gain his party's 
nomination, he tossed that courage out the window. Now he wants to make 
those tax cuts permanent: as the rich get richer, the middle class gets 
pushed down into the ranks of poverty, and the poor are increasingly on 
their own.

He promised to run a respectful campaign, saying that he won't talk trash 
about his rival-he just hires Karl Rove's friends to do it.   And did you 
see his face when his second in command when his second in command went into 
her carefully planned speech of character assassination. He was giggling 
like a schoolgirl when Ms. Lipstick Pitbull trashtalked Obama.

Did you notice how he first said he did not know anything about economics, 
but suddenly discovers he has all the answers?

He says he believes in freedom, but his second in command wants to censor 
library books, and fired a librarian who stood up to her.

McCain says he hates war, but pushed hard to get us involved in Iraq from 
the very beginning. That war cost us our economy. America went from being 
rich to being in debt. That was started by George Bush, and continued by 
John McCain, who promises more.

Granted, Iraq is quieter now; if you kill enough people it will definitely 
calm things down; graveyards are not noisy places.

"Maverick" McCain says he is against government wastefulness and 
corruption-so where are his speeches on the mountains of money lost, stolen, 
or mis-spent in Iraq, entire fork-lift pallets of money unaccounted for?

He even abandoned his  enthusiasm for President Bush-in his acceptance 
speech he never mentioned the name of that man he once so publicly embraced, 
putting his cheek on the President's chest.

As a former prisoner of war, McCain deserves respect.

But when he mentions his war record, which he does at any possible excuse, 
we should remember there are other veterans, whose interests he routinely 
votes against.

Like the soldiers in VA hospitals, who were recently told by the Bush 
Administration, that they can no longer be helped to register to vote.

The same veterans whose care John McCain so frequently votes against. They 
also were soldiers. Their heroism also deserves recognition.

Many are disabled, like John McCain's first wife. They must not be 
abandoned.

America needs a President who will not only look out for everyone, but also 
try to make things better: to heal the ill and injured.

John McCain is not that man.

Don C. Reed
Sponsor, Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act
Founder and Co-Chair, Californians for Cures

Don Reed is also Vice President of Public Policy for Americans for Cures 
Foundation; opinions voiced here as an individual may or may not reflect 
those of the Foundation.

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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