Cindy has what it takes to be the first lady

WITH her elegant clothes and perfectly coiffed blond hair, Cindy McCain looks the part of a US first lady.

She is also well prepared for the role. Heiress to a fortune estimated at more than $100 million and chairwoman of one of the largest privately held companies in Arizona, McCain has travelled overseas extensively with different philanthropic organisations, visiting Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Angola, India, Vietnam and other countries.

She has dealt with US government agencies, championed relief work through her charities and overseen the family business, gaining valuable experience that would serve her well as first lady if her husband, Republican John McCain, wins the presidential election.

“Despite the fact that she hasn’t been in Washington DC all that much, her actual experience in foreign countries would be the greatest attribute to serve her well,” said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, author and historian for the National First Ladies Library. Anthony said McCain’s international experience as the medical charity’s founder and board member for a landmine removal group, would give her a boost at the White House.

“She’s had to deal with government agencies... and I think, in the process, she has developed a certain level of diplomacy that I think is along the lines of what might be asked of her were she to be first lady,” Anthony said.

McCain, 54, has indicated she would continue her philanthropic work if her husband wins, although it is unclear what she would do with her role as chairwoman of the family business, Hensley & Co, one of the largest US beer distributors.

McCain is a former rodeo queen and cheerleader who holds a master’s degree in special education from the University of Southern California.

Eighteen years younger than her husband, McCain has an independent streak. She never moved to Washington although her husband has been in Congress most of their married life.

McCain also decided to learn to fly and even bought a plane before telling her husband.

It was only when they applied for their marriage licence that the McCains realised they had both lied about their age when they met in 1979 — Cindy, then 24, said she was older and McCain, 41, a married father of three, said he was younger.

Cindy Lou Hensley and John McCain married in May 1980, five weeks after McCain divorced his first wife, Carol.

Occasionally she speaks strongly, saying in Tennessee recently that she thought Democrat Barack Obama had “waged the dirtiest campaign in American history”. She has also attacked Obama by saying he did not support troops in Iraq, telling supporters “The day that Sen Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body.”