He’s running as a conservative in a party that touts “the sanctity of marriage” as one of their top issues. Therefore his having divorced his first wife because she was involved in a bad accident, and his having married his second wife, 17 years his junior, shortly thereafter, is relevant. John McCain likes to talk about he was a POW. He doesn’t like to talk as much about how he ditched his wife a few years after returning home. If we’re being asked to consider 8 more years of these people, and their morality, then it’s time we inquired about their morality. McCain would like us to remember the hero part, then forget the trophy bride part, even though they both happened around the same time. You get one, you get the other. And he was 42 years old at the time, so let’s stop excusing Republicans for their “youthful indiscretions” that happened about the time of menopause. The Bible doesn’t have a statute of limitations. If we have to live by it, they have to live by it.

From the NYT eight years ago:

Mr. McCain has acknowledged running around with women and accepted responsibility for the breakup of the marriage, without going into details. But his supporters and his biographer, Robert Timberg, all suggest that the marriage had already effectively ended and that the couple had separated by the time he met Cindy, his present wife. That might be the most soothing way of explaining a politician’s divorce from a disabled wife and his remarriage to a wealthy heiress, but it does not jibe with accounts of family members and friends.

Lots more after the jump…

