A reader writes in:

A reader, Ston, had this to say about John McCain:

"One thing you don't hear from McCain is the fact that he has a 19-20 year old son who has done an Iraq tour as a Marine, and another son at Annapolis who is almost certain to be deployed to the region. That's a bit of class that Obama would do well to emulate.""

I have a different take on McCain’s failure to mention his family. Think back over the years that McCain has been a public figure, have you ever seen him once look at his wife with anything bordering on affection? Have you seen them ever walking hand in hand, or laughing with each other? Or do you see him hurriedly walking, mumbling to himself, trying to keep up with his young staffers while Cindy is relegated to walking serenely several steps behind as if it were China of the 1800's and she was supposed to walk 4 paces back? The reason you never hear about John McCain’s family is because in his mind, there is himself, his ambitions and not much left over. During his Senate Tenure he spends the week in Washington, and when he does fly back to AZ on certain weekends, there are usually fundraisers and events to attend leaving little to no time with the family. Meanwhile Cindy and the kids live in AZ full time. What family man would continue to live like that for decades? Not only missing the maturing of his children but also the company of the woman he supposedly loves?

My father, a diehard Republican, even more conservative than myself says he will have a difficult time bringing himself to vote for McCain because "I don't like the way he treats Cindy" This has nothing to do with the story about the name he supposedly called her. My father is shocked, not only by what I mentioned in this letter, but more importantly, that a husband could be so oblivious to his wife that he would not notice the fact that she had been in pain to the extent that she had developed a fairly long term addiction to drugs. He said that the fact that her drug addiction had to be pointed out to McCain by another family member shows somebody too self absorbed to be either a good husband or president, he said that by themselves, he could ignore the accusations of dumping the first wife because she had lost her looks and cheating on her with Cindy, not appearing to now care for Cindy, Calling Cindy a horrible name in front of reporters, Not noticing her Drug dependency, but when taken together they paint the picture=2 0of a frighteningly unaware self absorbed man who only cares for things or people in how they will aid his ambitions. My father is a lifetime republican and in his 70's right in McCain's demo. He said he doesn't think he can bring himself to vote Obama because he is too liberal, but thinks he may just sit this one out for the first time ever.