Most spouses of nominees are put in one section of a convention program, as Michelle Obama was. But Cindy McCain was all over the Republican conclave.
The would-be first lady spoke twice from the podium on Monday’s abbreviated session, leading efforts to put together care packages for those harmed by Hurricane Gustav, spoke to several state delegation breakfasts, and on Thursday was honored at a big luncheon.
But all that was mere prelude to her formal speech Thursday night in introduction of her husband John.
One of her most moving passages told not about the Arizona senator’s suffering in a North Vietnamese prison camp, but about his return there decades later to retrieve remains of Americans who had been missing in action.
It was part, she said, of the effort to normalize relations with Vietnam — and “to bring closure to both sides.”
