Ok, I'll take the obvious question, Lee.

What exactly is "wrong" with Senator McCain adopting and raising a child? What about this personal life decision is "fair game" (which implies it was a despicable move)?

I'm not a McCain supporter in this election, but this is just a ridiculous thing and not deserving of the scorn he is getting on this message board.

Who "surprises" their husband with an adopted baby. It would be irresponsible to surprise your spouse with a puppy.

To Joe:

MCCAIN is putting his personal life out there in these ads for public consumption!

The personal life of a presidential candidate is fair game and can speak volumes!

There are those of us who don't agree with the point he is trying to make in this ad (and others) and are going to say so even if it may seem hateful to some. Sometimes the brutal truth hurts! It all needs to be aired out regardless.

We're electing the most powerful person in the world here. Not the homecoming king!

McCain has no shame. First bring mommy on the trail , then baby. i guess not having any real platform requires doing odd humiliating acts

When McCain brought his 95 year old mother, some people complained and asked where his wife was. When his wife appeared, some said she is too blonde. Although I don't like the Clintons, I still say Chelsea is attractive. I won't ever vote for her in my life time, but there is no need in criticizing families of candidates unless they are involved in politics like Bill is.

Whether or not this adopted child is McCain's illegitimate child, DNA tests can be done easily. But McCain is no Nicole Smith. This is none of our business if John and Cindy both love the child to pieces.

Even if this child were illegitimate, she is as worthy as any child born by married parents such as Chelsea.

Steve - 2 things:

1. I probably wouldn't vote for McCain since I haven't supported any of his positions except the agreement that torture is unacceptable. So you start from a false assumption.

2. I was simply defending him from the hateful observations people were making about his personal life. Those first posts - which were the only ones on this board at the time - are simply uncalled for. We should be above attacking someone as an individual even if we disagree with them politically.

I beleive that this days are very critical in American history. Americans should be ready to elect a president who can listen them and who they can listen. It is time to bring USA to its previous periods of sucess.

The US economy, health care, education system, foreign policy is at a very great risk. It is the time to elect a president who can solve this problems and who can really bring a change to the USA. To bring a real change we should have to have a president who can inspire americans to bring change because with out the people the president can do nothing. The role of young peoples, in this case, is very crusial.

I beleive that OBAMA have the above qualities. I heard many peoples saying he is very inspiring after they listened to his speech for the first time. It is really important to have a president who spend all his life working for the public. After Obama graguated from university, he could have become a lawyer and got lots of money, but what he did not do that. He worked in a community service for years.
He taught the constitiution for many years. It is very important to have a president who had studied and taught the constitution. Obama is a person who have international thinking. He lived in Hawaii, where there are many cultures. He lived in Indonesia. All this enables him to have international thinking which is very essential for a president.

Obama can bring a real change. Most people agree about this including John Kerey and Colin pole . May God be with Obama.

The air of journalism is clean again ! I can breath again ! I can think for myself !Its been 48 hours and I havent seen a single political Poll on CNN ! Let see how long these "commentators" can think for themselves !

To Joe:
I agree with what Steve, Lyons, CO had to say to you.

To Steve:
Thank you . I couldn't have said it better.

Steve Lyons from CO, you're right. It is indeed pro-fetal life. The unborn have no voice. They have no say whatsoever when it comes to the ending of their life.

The Armed Forces however is an all voluntary group. The brave people who enrolled in the millitary made the conscious choice to put their lives on the line for the benefit of the United States. I was in the military. I signed a contract with the United States that I would forfeit my life for the benefit of my country.

I know the distinction is completely lost on people such as yourself but you cannot compare the life of the unborn with the life of a volunteer in the Armed Forces. One has a say, the other does not.

Steve,

If you'll re-read my post, you will see my comments are directly related to the hateful people who attacked John McCain personally in the first 5 or 6 posts. Obviously I hadn't even seen any of the posts made afterwards, some of which may have valid political content. But those first few posts were not political opinions, they were just hateful personal attacks on John McCain and his family - which have no place in American discourse.

While I would prefer people who make decisions about the fate of our country based upon personal spite and hatred sit out elections, of course there is nothing I (or you) can do about that.

The irony is you assume I am going to vote for McCain, something that is highly unlikely.

Can an American not defend his fellow American when he (or she) is unjustly attacked yet still disagree with them on policy and the direction they would take the country?

I would hope so.

John McCain is too smart for his own good!

"Me, I am not racist! I adopted a baby whose skin is an even darker shade of brown than that of the people (Arabs and Persians) I advocate killing."

The Republicans can't have it both ways….if they want to use their childen as examples of how they stand on an issue (aka McCain and abortion) they can't simultaneously cry foul when their children are used as examples of their political hypocrisy (aka Cheney and gay parents).

Hey David. They unborn have no voice for a reason….they aren't a person yet!

“When a mother comes home with a new child, and doesn’t even tell him she’s coming home with a new baby, and surprises him with a new baby from Bangladesh — and not only does he open his arms, he loves her just like I do,” said Cindy McCain, introducing her husband in Greenville, South Carolina Thursday, “that’s something that says something about the character of a man.”
-Cindy McCain

This statement is bewildering. What are you trying to say Mrs. McCain?

I simply don't understand this "surprised him with an adopted child" story.

I have adopted two children from Bulgaria, one in 1998 and one in 1999. My wife and I had to fill out a million forms, undergo repeated examinations, send medical records, police records, financial records, yada, yada, yada in order to get the necessary permission. Much of this was for the Bulgarian authorities, but some of it was to convince the State Department that they should permit the child entry into the United States.

Did the McCain family not have to do ANY of the paperwork we had to do? This seems inconceivable to me. Did John McCain not ask about the notarized forms releasing medical records, police records, and financial records he would have had to sign?

Either Cyndi McCain pulled a heck of a fast one on her husband, or she was being less than truthful in describing the arrival of the child.

But why did McCain and his family not call Bush and Rove on their dirty tactics in trying to insinuate that their daughter was actually a child born as a result of an affair with another woman?? They just laid down and let them say awful things about their daughter without setting the record straight, and then sucked up to the Bush administration for the next eight years.

Not a man I want as president.

SEE JOHN MCCAIN. SEE JOHN MCCAIN WALK. SEE JOHN MCCAIN TALK.

IT ONLY TAKES A FIRST GRADER TO FIGURE OUT MCCAIN IS OUT OF TUNE WITH THE U.S. PUBLIC.

HE'S GOTTEN ALL THE GLORY AND RESPECT HE DESERVES. N.H GAVE HIM HIS ONE AND ONLY WIN JUST AS IN 2000.

HE'S FOR THE WAR. PERIOD. CITIZENS OF US ARE TIRED OF WAR AND THE ECONOMY IT HAS RAVAGED. LET THE IRAQIS FIGHT THEIR OWN BATTLES. GET OUT OF THERE.

FINISH UP WHAT WE STARTED IN AFGHANISTAN AND BRING THEM HOME TO THEIR FAMILIES.

this is the only candidate with a decent mind. mcCain is the only one that can beat hillary and obama. and yes, family does matter…unless of course you are liberal like john edwards….he's got a pregnant woman strolling around chapel hill and nobody is reporting on that!!!

Joe whined about McCain bashers:
"If you're all that cold-hearted, judgmental, and just plain stupid, do us all a favor and sit this election out."

No way, Joe. We're not going to allow a gang of rednecks and confused Americans like yourself elect ANOTHER anti-woman, anti-science liar like McCain.

We're gonna vote, and it won't be a Republican criminal that ends up as president.

Why don't you, Joe, blow your fascism out your ear?

Six degrees of separation. One Presidential candidate's wife, John McCain's wife Cindy, adopts a baby from one of Mother Theresa's orphanages at the same time that another Presidential candidate's wife, Dennis Kucinich's wife Elizabeth, was volunteering at Mother Theresa's orphanages. Small world.

It's pro-fetal-life, John McCoward, you misogynist.

Far-right anti-abortion nutcases could care less about the lives of alive and breathing human beings. "Love 'em until they're born."

Now he's using his adopted daughter for political purposes. I wonder what the true, likely cynical, purpose of the adoption was in the first place, John, you calculating lizard.

jw, canadian,ok January 11, 2008 10:59 am ET

Can we assume there were no children in the US available for adoption at the time?

Kay, Las Vegas, NV January 11, 2008 12:52 pm ET

I would be much more impressed if he had adopted one of the millions of American children waiting to be adopted…charity begins at home, John!

____________________________________________________

Did you consider the conditions that orphans in this country live under versus the conditions that orphans in poor countries like Bangladesh live in? Why is an American child more valuable or desirable than one from Bangladesh? I think that is just an ignorant statement, that he should've adopted an American child first.

I am in the process myself of adopting a child, an American child, after practically raising her myself for the last 3 years, so I speak from experience. American children in need of adoption are in foster homes or children's home where, I am sure, they are much better cared for than those children in Third World nations. The story says they got the baby from Mother Teresa's orphanage. Why don't you slam Mother Teresa while you're at it, for not working in the US, or in Albania where she was from. No wonder the people in the rest of the world see Americans as arrogant and unconcerned for others outside our own little bubble.

I'm confused. Cindy McCain was having trouble abusing prescription drugs during this time. She stole the drugs from her own philantropic organization. When did she (and John McCain) have time and judgement to adopt a Bangladesh baby? And why? Where is the child now? I have seen most the candidates with small children (i.e. Obama & Edwards) but not McCain's adopted child. Is he ashamed of having a dark-complexion child at his side?

JOhn Rowse, you a funny guy. McCain is "a ultra-liberal Democrat," and Obama and Edwards are "racist." You funny guy, Joh Rowse.

What about Keating 5? What that a moral decision or just plain old bribery?.

I would be much more impressed if he had adopted one of the millions of American children waiting to be adopted…charity begins at home, John!

mccain is prolife and supports the mess in the middle east,
isn't that a contradiction

out of all the candidates running, john mccain has been a pro life supporter the longest. i commend him for that & for being adoptive parent.

-proud to be an adoptee & mccainite

If Republicans are pro-life, then stand up now for ending these wars!

A ultra-liberal Democrat like John McCain should not focus on South Carolina - there are too many Americans living there. McCain should focus on his base the illegal alien vote in BIG States like Florida and Mexifornia. While fellow Democrats like Hillary Clinton are trying to make a play for the Hispanic/illegal alien vote in Nevada, McCain credentials as the "architect of amnesty" and endorsements from liberal Democrats like Ted Kennedy and Gore's running mate Joe Lieberman will give McCain the Mexican votes he needs to prevail over those racist, pro-american candidates like Obama and Edwards.

An adopted individual is not some symbol to be used during a political season.

As an American I'm ashamed that Mrs. McCain would think so little of the welfare of an orphan that she would bring her home without any preparation on the part of herself and her husband to the special emotional needs of transracial adoptees.

Now to use her as a pawn in his election - shameful.

Mr. McCain would be better suited seeing to the needs of the 115K American foster children who are available for adoption, instead of using his daughter to jump on the celebrity boat of international orphans.

McCain has many positive points, but this has dropped him down in my eyes.

I think it's wonderful that they adopted this baby. It says to me that they are good people. I'm glad he brought it up, as I recall it was used against him in 2000.

It doesn't matter, McCain will lose in South Carolina again, because he adopted a black.

Although claiming to be very christian, for some reason the soouth is very unforgiving (very un-christian).

Jen, Ronald Reagan was seventy years old when he took office and he served two terms and was one of best Presidents that we ever had.

One thing that the article fails to mention is that the robo-calls that alleged that he had an illegitimate daughter also tried to say that the daughter was illegitimate and black in order to fire up the stupid redneck Republicans in South Carolina.

The Republican sleaze machine is really something else. For THAT, we should definitely be ashamed as a society.

Of course, the 2000-era Bushbots are now going to come clean about the baby, right?

Too bad McCain didn't choose to highlight the moral standards of the Bush Twins when he was running in 2000.

Their antics in Austin and Waco are the things legends and reputations are created from!

I am pro choice and I voted for Clinton. However, McCain was dragged through the mud by Karl Rove and George Bush when they took this situation and twisted it to make a commendable situation disgusting. I will never understand why McCain supported Bush after that and I think he did himself a disservice as well as the American people. If a child is born and is not wanted - then God bless the person who makes the choice to bring that child into their home - no matter what country or ethnicity. It's all about giving a person the a better life. If we all thought that way then maybe there would be no starving children in America, Africa, India, South America and anyplace else for that matter.

It boggles my mind that people take human life for granted and are so willing to discard a new life without a second thought. "…if you don't want an abortion - don't have one.." Simply shameful.

Why is this relavant? Because the unborn has no voice. That unborn child is the product of two people, the father and the mother. Far too many abortions are done for no other reason than convenience.

There are cases inwhich an abortion may be medically required, for instance if the life of the mother is in danger. In this light abortions should be done very rarely. To have an abortion because the child poses an inconvenience is simply shameful and will forever be a black mark on our society. If the child is an inconvenience then put it up for adoption, don't kill it.

What I find most hypocritical about the whole discussion is that there are laws making it a crime to assault, harm, or murder an unborn child. Scott Peterson was found guilty of murder of Conner Peterson, an unborn child. People were outraged that Scott Peterson would kill his wife and in so doing kill his unborn child and at the same time dismiss abortion as if it were no different than having a tooth removed. The mindset is disgusting and we as a society should be ashamed.

…. some posters here need to get a life … or have their's examined under a microscope …

Like Cade and his ilk … according to him McCain can't do anything right … and
as for McCain defending his family??

He did! But the God-fearing, good Christian voters of South Carolina , being so perfect as to cast the first stone, believed Rove's lies and voted for Bush … the same ones who loudly applaud Huckabees quote for women to submit graciously to their husbands…

Now Rove is telling Obama how to campaign … the sleeze factor just keeps getting worse.

John McCain has no crediblityas a "conservative" …opposed to tax cuts, teaming up with Ted Kennedy on gun control and amnesty for illegals, not to mention restriction of free speech with McCain-Feingold campaign finance. And a few years ago, he insulted Christians.
He deserves to be soundly defeated. Been in the Senate too long!

Churchill finished WWII at the young vibrant age of 71, only to be re-elected six years later for his second term! Reagan was 70 when he was elected. Voting or not voting for someone based on their age is pretty stupid.

It amazes me how many people still believe the politicians that stand there, and tell them only what they want to hear. How many times do we citizens have to be told one thing, only to have another happen, before we realize that character and honesty are really the main things we should be looking for? So yeah, smooth-talking politicians seem very "presidential", my argument is that they seem presidential because we let ourselves be duped by their promises. Promises that folks who actually UNDERSTAND our system, know can't possibly be accomplished. I'm leaning towards to guy who gives it to me straight, even if he's not 40 years old with a gleaming white smile and perfect hair.

Can we assume there were no children in the US available for adoption at the time?

He's pro-life and pro-family. Big deal. It's time to move past this when choosing a president.

Good For Him!!

Okay, this is relavent for what reason? Abortion, like many other health/medical decisions should not be making national news or be a national candidate issue. How someone feels about this should not be a concern unless you feel the need to go into everyone's life and tell them how to live it. Should we be asking candidate if they feel if they were on life support and pulling the plug; for their child; for their spouse? I mean how many of these things should really be looked at and be the sole reason to vote for someone?

Wow! Did a bunch of idiots wake up on the wrong side of the bed or what?

McCain was viciously smeared last time around by "uniter" Bush so he pre-emptively strikes to make sure that doesn't happen again.

And all he gets from you is scorn for loving and raising a child, for being "too old," for not having an "acceptable" marriage, and for not defending false and indefensible attacks four years ago. Oh, and not explaining his stance on immigration enough - which I've personally heard him explain ad nauseum for the past year (hint, if you don't like comprehensive immigration reform, I guess you're not going to vote for him . . . beat your head against a wall often?).

If you're all that cold-hearted, judgmental, and just plain stupid, do us all a favor and sit this election out.

Hey Chris, Rudy screwed up and promised to appoint pro-life judges to the supreme court. Oops!

Amen to Cade above!

Doesn't it strike a strange chord that the McCains would make such a major life decision (not to mention the life of the adopted child) without ever having discussed it first.

Media…where is your critical eye here?

McCain, Why didn't you talk about and defend your family when Bush absolutely SMEARED them in 2000??

What does that say about your marriage?

Does this sound right to you? What kind of marriage do they have if they don't discuss adopting a child with each other before they do it? Of course he is going to react the way he did.

I am all for adoption. I have 3 members of my family that are adopted. I am prolife. That still sounds crazy to me to not take adopting more seriously.

Why would you try to use this story to get votes? Its crazy.

Yet…70% of the country are "socially liberal and fiscally conservative" - if you don't want an abortion - don't have one….with many of the supreme court retiring in the next couple years….we need a moderate in office - we need Giuliani….the only moderate running….

I commend your pro-life stand.
I commend you for your years of service.
I commend you for loving our country so much, we all do.
I commend you for wanting to make a difference.
But you are too old to be able to be our President for the next 4 or 8 years.
Sorry.

The senator would be better served by explaining his pro amnesty position on illegal immigration.