Cindy McCain's secret shame

This is pretty embarassing: Cindy McCain has apparently been caught passing off Food Network recipes as her own. What's even more embarassing is the explanation: it's the work of "an intern". Because, of course, when I want to know what my favorite recipes are, I ask one of the Atlantic's interns.

Forget about my issues with John McCain; I'm not sure the nation can survive four years with such an inept liar in the office of First Lady. What on earth is she going to say the first time Lyudmila Putin says "What do you think of my suit?"

The bizarre thing is that there's a perfectly (almost) innocent explanation: most of us don't have that many family recipes, and given the way that tastes have changed over the last fifty years, many of the ones we do have are best left in the attic along with the other dark family secrets. Pimento loaf and some noodles-in-lard-sauce, anyone?

A lot of my favorite recipes come from Epicurious, or Julia Child, or Betty Crocker. I've tweaked a lot of them, but how much do you have to tweak it before it becomes yours? No one any longer expects a wife to have spent thirty years in the kitchen becoming a self-taught gourmet, and thank God for small favors. The honorable thing to do is attribute, of course, but the McCain team still seems to be intent on pretending that Cindy McCain derives all of her recipes from First Principles. What's the shame in admitting you used a cookbook?

Comments

I'm not sure the nation can survive four years with such an inept liar in the office of First Lady.

Is this an argument in favor of having a skilled, professional liar serve as First Lady or First Laddie?

Posted by MarkG | April 17, 2008 1:55 PM

Considering the fact that Cindy committed multiple felonies that would have gotten her sent to the slammer for decades if she was poor and black, but got to walk away scot free because she's a pretty white politically connected girly girl, I think that cut and pasting some recipes is the least of her worries.

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 1:58 PM

It was the intern. The New York Times said a web intern was asked to call Cindy McCain's staff to get info about her recipe's.

Instead the college intern just took it off the food network.

How dense can you be?

Do you really think Cindy McCain herself creating her own web blog on her recipes.

It is not working? Why are McCain's ratings going up. Because he is the honest one. The voters can see through the dem lies.

Posted by Jason | April 17, 2008 2:03 PM

I'm a McCain supporter who's mildly embarrassed by this, but Megan's "Pimento loaf and some noodles-in-lard-sauce" triggered a reminder to recommend James Lileks' hysterical new book, "Gastroanomalies":

http://www.amazon.com/Gastroanomalies-Questionable-Culinary-Creations-American/dp/0307383075/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208455348&sr=8-1

(If only I knew how to do tiny URLs.)

When all the campaign blather of this election season has you pulling out your hair, pick up "Gastroanomalies."

As for Cindy McCain: Megan's outrage is understandable, but does any man care about a woman's recipe collection when she looks like Cindy McCain looks? I didn't think so.

One more thing: Why is Megan focusing on such "trivia"? Surely Glenn Greenwald has filed another angry missive. I'm off to check out Salon.

Posted by Christian | April 17, 2008 2:06 PM

Mrs McCain has more integrity in her thumb than Hillary Clinton has.

Mrs McCain raised two sons who are serving our country one who just came back from Iraq.

While Hillary lies that she tried to join the service. First she said she tried to join the marines and then bill said she tried to join the army. She wasn't trying to join but that doesn't stop the Clintons from lying.

How about travel gate or whitewater.

How about Clinton following the travel of Bill's mistresses.

How the dems can go after Cindy McCain when they have Hillary Clinton as a candidate is a joke.

Posted by Jason | April 17, 2008 2:07 PM

So, wait, Jason -

Are you saying that the way to be honest is to claim that you're writing a blog, but then have an intern ghostwrite it for you instead?

Wow, such honesty. Such admirable straight-talk.

Maybe Cindy can have interns steal prescription drugs from charities so she can get high. Oh wait, she prefers to do that for herself. I forgot.

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 2:08 PM

1. Your link about Putin's wife's suit doesn't work.
2. Her last name is Putina, not Putin. In Russian, last names change depending on your gender (Sokolsky goes to Sokolskaya, Putin goes to Putina).
3. Given that McCain is a proponent of the Russian-secret-services-framed-the-Chechens theory (probably the only lucid thought the man's ever had), I somehow doubt that Cindy McCain will ever get the chance to engage in small talk with Lyudmila Putina.

On an unrelated sidenote, it's interesting how McCain believes that the Russian secret services blew up the apartment buildings and blamed it on the Russians, and yet is silent on Litvinenko's accusation that the FSB trained and holds significant sway over the number 2 at al-Qaeda (who some claim is actually the number 1).

Posted by Stephen Smith | April 17, 2008 2:10 PM

You really think Cindy McCain has the technology knowledge to create her own weblog for recipes?

You really think the candidate's wife does that?

What planet are you on.

The web intern an unpaid college student was asked to call her cindy mccain's staff and instead just copied it from the food network.

How dense can the left be instead of just laughing about it to make it a real issue.

Posted by Jason | April 17, 2008 2:11 PM

Jason, if it's true what you say, that's an intern who lacks ambition. Doesn't she or he grasp that working for the Paper of Duranty comes with a responsibility to strive for the heights of misinformation? Recipes, indeed!

Posted by Will Allen | April 17, 2008 2:12 PM

Someone needs to keep up on the personal lives of russian tyrants. If Cindy meets anyone it will be Alina Putin, and we'll all just hope that she doesn't put her legs over her shoulders (backwards... the future Mrs. Putin is an amazingly flexible rythmic gymnast).

Posted by Hey | April 17, 2008 2:12 PM

Everyone knows the only thing in the kitchen that Cindy McCain can operate is the martini shaker, and that's only if the help is unavailable.

Posted by Woody Bombay | April 17, 2008 2:14 PM

It also seems like Jason has an interesting definition of integrity.

Apparently "integrity" means:

"Have an affair with a married man and get him to leave his wife for you," and

"Steal drugs from charities and take them to get high," and

"Get your powerful husband to try to crush the whistleblower at the charity who trys to get the story out."

Such integrity, my heavens.

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 2:16 PM

To Brian it was supposed to be a list of Cindy McCain's recipes.

The web intern was supposed to call Cindy McCain's staff.

No one said that Cindy McCain herself was typing it in.

It wasn't supposed to be her blog it was just supposed to be a list of her recipes.

The web intern was told to call Cindy McCain's staff and instead just copied it off the food network.

How hard is this to understand.

The New York Times reported on these specifics yesterday.

The left has taken a simple mistake of a teenage web intern and blown it out of proportion.

The candidates wives don't type that in. That is what you have web interns for.

Do you really think Cindy McCain is tech savvy enough to create a weblog.

Do you really think an adult would copy from the food network.

She has her own recipes that will be put up shortly.

Do you really think she would put recipes up that sounded so out of touch?

Posted by Jason | April 17, 2008 2:18 PM

Meh. No biggie.

*typed while munching on delicious chocolate chip cookie made from Hillary Clinton's no doubt very own recipe as published in Family Circle in 1992*

Posted by albo | April 17, 2008 2:18 PM

I guess McCain can write off the foodie vote, then.

And Jason, once was enough. Also, Megan's not a Democrat.

Posted by heedless | April 17, 2008 2:19 PM

Brian you have your facts wrong.

Cindy McCain met John after he was already divorced.

McCain had affairs with other women during his first marraige but didn't meet Cindy until after he was already divorced.

Posted by Jason | April 17, 2008 2:21 PM

The key question is whether or not Michelle Obama would be proud of her nation to know we're onto Cindy McCain.

Posted by MarkG | April 17, 2008 2:30 PM

No, Jason, you're the one who's wrong. John McCain met Cindy in 1979 and married her a month after his divorce in 1980.

They were adulterers. Both of them!

Posted by Woody Bombay | April 17, 2008 2:37 PM

Jason, no quite correct there. By the candidate's own admission, McCain met & fell in love with Cindy while he was still married to his former wife.

Posted by justsayin | April 17, 2008 2:38 PM

Thank you for correcting me, Jason. I won't make that error again. Let me repost my correction:

It also seems like Jason has an interesting definition of integrity.

Apparently "integrity" means:

"Steal drugs from charities and take them to get high," and

"Get your powerful husband to try to crush the whistleblower at the charity who trys to get the story out."

Such integrity, my heavens.

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 2:38 PM

Looks like I spoke too soon, there.

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 2:40 PM

Jason is the one with his facts wrong. From the Arizona Republic (3/1/07)

After a whirlwind courtship, John asked Cindy to marry him. But there were some details to clear out of the way.

McCain needed a divorce from Carol, his wife of 14 years from whom he was separated. After McCain's dramatic homecoming from Vietnam, the couple grew apart. Their marriage began disintegrating while McCain was stationed in Jacksonville. McCain has admitted to having extramarital affairs.

In February 1980, less than a year after he met Cindy, McCain petitioned a Florida court to dissolve his marriage to Carol, calling the union "irretrievably broken.":

Posted by sean | April 17, 2008 2:44 PM

Cindy McCain has apparently been caught passing off Food Network recipes as her own.

To reiterate: Megan is just flat out wrong.

Cindy McCain wasn't "passing off" anything. The campaign was caught passing off Food Network recipes in Cindy McCain's name. And, in particular, an intern was caught "passing off" those recipes because the intern failed to (for whatever reason) contact Cindy McCain's staff to find out what her favorite recipes actually are.

Or does Megan have some inside information that Cindy McCain herself surfed over to FoodNetwork.com to get those recipes and then personally gave them to the campaign to post. But I'm betting that Megan has no such information.

Instead, Megan is perfectly comfortable falsely accusing Cindy McCain of being an "inept liar".

A correction to the post is warranted. (Not that I'd ever expect Megan to post a correction about anything, no matter how much evidence you'd give her that she's wrong.)

Posted by Al | April 17, 2008 3:06 PM

So according to Al, we should not believe that communications issuing from the McCain campaign that purport to be from Cindy are in fact from Cindy.

How about stuff signed "John McCain", Al? Should we assume none of that stuff is his either?

Do you really think that it's somehow better to have the story be that the campaign staff routinely falsely attributes material the campaign puts out?

Since the campaign website listed the recipes as "Cindy's recipes" even though they aren't, should we now assume that the parts of the website that list the candidate's issue positions may also just have been invented by an intern?

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 3:35 PM

Brian,
We should follow Obama's advice and say it was a campaign employee that was just filling out the form , that had Obama's handwriting on it, that stated support for controversial policies, that Obama had to disavow as coming from someone else in his campaign not representative of him, that Obama later went on to vote in a manner that showed he supported those policies he disavowed and attributed to error in the first place.

Posted by sam | April 17, 2008 4:04 PM

So according to Al, we should not believe that communications issuing from the McCain campaign that purport to be from Cindy are in fact from Cindy.

No, I would think you should believe that "communications issuing from the McCain campaign that purport to be from Cindy are in fact from Cindy" until they tell you differently. In this case, they did tell you that an intern falsely attributed something to Cindy McCain that should not have been.

Do you really think that it's somehow better to have the story be that the campaign staff routinely falsely attributes material the campaign puts out?

I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "routinely".

Posted by Al | April 17, 2008 4:40 PM

Wow, Cindy was an addict that stole drugs and got off like Limbaugh?
Must be awesome to be rich and Republican in this country.

Posted by Julie | April 17, 2008 5:08 PM

As far as getting off for crimes committed being a republican thing, I think we could start a list of democrats that have paid, or been lucky enough to get great counsel to get off. Should be start with the Kennedy family? It isn't a party thing at all. It might be a rich thing. This article would be about the things that Barack thinks are too stupid to respond to. The questions he was forced to answer last night annoyed the heck out of him because the meats and potatoes of the campaign was largely ignored. Cindy McCain is not running for President, her husband is. If she committed a crime only she should answer about the particulars. It is only a matter of time before she will be forced to because the media loves dirt. BTW, the questions that were asked last night at the debate came from the liberal media, not any republicans.

Posted by Susan | April 17, 2008 5:32 PM

orget about my issues with John McCain; I'm not sure the nation can survive four years with such an inept liar in the office of First Lady.

We survived from 1992 to 2000.

And, yes, I am saying the Ms. Clinton was inept at lying. Really, how many people believed the nonsense about the travel office, the billing records, believing Mr. Clinton...

I'd be more concerned that Mrs. McCain is lying about such petty stuff.

How many people believe any of Clintons, Obamas, McCains have cooked a meal in the last decade?

Posted by Kristian | April 17, 2008 5:45 PM

Really, I couldn't care less.

Posted by LnGrrrR | April 17, 2008 6:49 PM

People, Megan's post is clearly light-hearted, and I (like LnGrrrR) couldn't care less. Get a life.

Posted by Derannimer | April 17, 2008 8:21 PM

Fortunately, she'll be contrasted to either Michelle Heinz Obama or (depending on your view of things) Bill or Hillary Clinton, so she's got a long way to go before she's a net negative.

Does anyone else love this sentence?

"the McCain team still seems to be intent on pretending that Cindy McCain derives all of her recipes from First Principles."

lol, politics.

Posted by hitnrun | April 17, 2008 8:41 PM

What on earth is she going to say the first time Lyudmila Putin says "What do you think of my suit?"

She's say "Oh, my dear, however did you bear it when he left you for that gymnast!"

Posted by Charlie (Colorado) | April 17, 2008 8:48 PM

For all future candidates:

Quit trying to appear human on your websites. We know you are political robots, you aren't fooling anyone.

And you just make yourselves look foolish when stupid gaffes like this recipe thing come up.

Stick with policy and promises you'll never keep.

Posted by Jeff | April 17, 2008 8:48 PM

Lyudmilla? Better catch up on the news babe!

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Posted by sexy_Girl20 | April 17, 2008 9:18 PM

Wow! Folks on the left are really desperate to be touting Recipegate. Megan, this is unworthy of you. As for the GOP-haters, when you're stuck with Obama and Hillbilly, I guess you'll try anything to blacken (oops!) the GOP candidate.

Posted by indga | April 17, 2008 9:23 PM

Sam,

Why would I care what Obama would do? I'm voting for Barr, if he gets on the LPA ballot.

I just hate that rat bastard McCain as much as I've hated any politician in the last 30 years, because he gets credit for being a man of honor and a straight shooter when he is neither, and the set of issues surrounding his wife's crimes and drug abuse illustrate that neatly.

Posted by Brian | April 17, 2008 9:29 PM

God help us all get a life.

Posted by JFarr | April 17, 2008 9:35 PM

Let's see now. Can Cindy McCain set up a weblog? Maybe yes, maybe no. Can she provide the strategic direction to a 700 employee company including pursuing mergers with other distributors? And do it from the road using her Blackberry? If the article in the Wall Street Journal is to be believed, then the answer is yes.

Looks like Cindy McCain, blond, country club good looks and past drug problems notwithstanding, may be the real "Jane Galt" as she is the one creating jobs and building the economy one Bud at a time.

Posted by John | April 17, 2008 9:38 PM

Jason, sure Brian believes that. Doubtless Brian even believes that George Bush is stumbling around the White in a Coke-and-booze frenzy, thwarting the Democrats almost by accident as he flails blindly across the desk...

Posted by richard mcenroe | April 17, 2008 10:19 PM

"The campaign was caught passing off Food Network recipes in Cindy McCain's name. And, in particular, an intern was caught "passing off" those recipes because the intern failed to (for whatever reason) contact Cindy McCain's staff to find out what her favorite recipes actually are."

That summarizes it. The intern should be fired. What an embarrassment!

Besides, why is anyone asking for candidates' wives for favorite recipes? I'm sure some of them have their own chefs, or have little time to cook anything at home nowadays.

How can anyone talk about which recipe is real or "cooked up", or by whom, when the possibility of too many people not being able to afford anything to eat becomes very real? Did you see the latest in the consumer price index?

Posted by newton | April 17, 2008 10:36 PM

You're a lanky imbecile. Shut up.

It just gets more fun all the time, doesn't it?

Posted by yr not evenunintentionally funny | April 17, 2008 11:18 PM

cindy mccain looks like death warmed over...then put on ice

Posted by rg | April 17, 2008 11:59 PM

I have no worry. My best recipe, green chile stew, may have been cribbed off an old cookbook, but consists of:

put about this much of this, oh, a bunch of beef and a proper quantity of onions and one or two big cans of tomatoes and 3-4-5 cans of green chiles and some oregano and what looks like the right amount of garlic and a whole lot of cumin in a pot and cook.

Return after an hour and taste. If the taste is imperfect, add some more of what is needed. Maybe salt, too, whatever it tastes like.

Repeat process two or three times.

Posted by Dave Hardy | April 18, 2008 1:26 AM

Julie --

Oh, yeah, awesome to be Republican, just like Ted "Chappaquiddick" Kennedy.

Posted by Oildrilling Lunatic | April 18, 2008 2:58 AM

Doesn't anyone have enough of a sense of humor to see that the whole article was a tongue in cheek joke?

Posted by Dan | April 18, 2008 6:27 AM

Embarassing perhaps, but it's not exactly "landing under sniper fire" or "Death to America? Aw, that's just the way black folks talk."

Posted by jblog | April 18, 2008 8:14 AM

Jessh guys, Megan was kidding.

Posted by Pierce Wetter | April 18, 2008 9:27 AM

Before accusing anyone of plagiarism, prove to us that the recipe was an original of Food Network.
I am guessing that they got it from someone else in which case they are the plagiarists.

Posted by Gary Tietjen | April 18, 2008 10:50 AM

I'm not sure what Megan is getting at. Cindy McCain is a well known drug addict who engaged in fraud, theft and robbery in order to steal drugs meant as painkillers for orphans and refugees in a charity that she was involved in, in order to feed her disgusting habit.

Is Megan hinting that Cindy's drug addiction is resurfacing? Is the theft and fabrication of recipes a sign of impaired judgement? Or a hint that Cindy is now so far into the junk that she is just faking her way through things? Or is Megan suggesting that Cindy's drug addiction is leading her to launch a new wave of theft and fraud in order to feed her jones.

I really think that Megan may be unfair to Cindy. I mean, we have no real evidence that she's suffered a relapse. I know that the truism is that once a drug addict always a drug addict, that a person once addicted never stops being an addict and its a lifelong struggle to stay clean. Certainly stealing from orphans doesn't say much for character, but everyone makes mistakes. But really, when you think about it, Megan is essentially indirectly calling Cindy a burned out crack wh*r* who can't be bothered to even pretend at going through the motions convincingly.

That's just mean.

Posted by Den Valdron | April 18, 2008 11:09 AM

Why would you attack Cindy McCain?

Posted by K-Lo | April 18, 2008 11:35 AM

(backwards... the future Mrs. Putin is an amazingly flexible rythmic gymnast).

Didn't he see that episode of Seinfeld? Nothing about gymnastics translates into anything sexual.

Posted by Njorl | April 18, 2008 2:15 PM

What's the shame in admitting you used a cookbook?

If she had interns chasing down recipes for her, why would anyone thinks she uses a cookbook? My money says she hasn't touched a spatula in decades; well, at least, not for cooking.

The whole episode just reveals that the McCain campaign is trying to sell a phony image of its principals.

Posted by Macswain | April 18, 2008 4:41 PM

What's the shame in admitting you used a cookbook?

If she had interns chasing down recipes for her, why would anyone thinks she uses a cookbook? My money says she hasn't touched a spatula in decades; well, at least, not for cooking.

The whole episode just reveals that the McCain campaign is trying to sell a phony image of its principals.

Posted by Macswain | April 18, 2008 4:41 PM

How long is it until November?

John McCain is an 1st-amendment-violating, crack-whore-adulterer POW. Obama is an America-hating, inexperienced Messiah. Hillary is a coat-tail-clinging, socialist liar.

Have I missed anything? Can we just vote for the lesser of evils, now? Why do we have to let this drag on?

Posted by mrsizer | April 18, 2008 11:14 PM

This recipe non-scandal just shows how deep a pit of fail NObama is. (And so is Megan.)
LOL.

Posted by LOL | April 18, 2008 11:46 PM

The McCains met while Mr. McCain was still married. He was not yet divorced. They met in 1979 at a military reception in Honolulu and were married May 17, 1980. Mr. McCain's divorce from Carol Shepp his first wife was not finalized until April 1980. This is not a political response but just intended to provide facts. You are free to make your own judgments about the propriety of the behavior of the intended first couple.

Posted by Tony in Georgia | April 22, 2008 8:15 PM

Cindy is a prescription drug thief.

Why are RepubliKKKans so blind when it's one of their own?

Posted by David | July 2, 2008 12:43 PM