( CNN ) -- Every move scrutinized , every word analyzed : life in the electoral spotlight where a clothes selection can be as much a defining moment as policies espoused . Cindy McCain entered John McCain 's life after his return from the Vietnam War . This is life - not for the presumptive presidential nominees Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain - but for their respective wives . Michelle Obama has already been in the firing line - accused of being angry , negative and `` unpatriotic '' with growing concerns she will be the target of ever more intensive attacks by conservatives as the election battle heats up . For Sen. John McCain the attacks could come on two fronts - confined not just to his current spouse , the striking , elegant heiress Cindy Hensley McCain , but those rooted in his own marital history and the other Mrs. McCain before her - a woman of more modest means who is now virtually invisible . The first Mrs. McCain was born Carol Shepp . She was also a beauty in her youth but after their marriage she suffered a terrible misfortune . In 1969 , while John McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam , Carol was badly disfigured in a car accident . She underwent such drastic surgery to rebuild her body that she ended up several inches shorter and a good deal heavier . For years , she struggled to recover and raise their three children but kept it secret from her POW husband to avoid adding to his ordeal . He did n't find out until he was released and they were reunited , in 1973 , but the marriage soon ran into trouble . He was 42 and Cindy Hensley was 24 when she became the woman with whom he would make a new life . He separated from his wife within months . In his memoirs , McCain writes that their break-up was caused by his `` selfishness and immaturity '' ... . '' The blame was entirely mine . '' Carol does n't often talk to the media but she does n't think her accident or injuries ended her marriage . She told one biographer `` I attribute it more to John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again than I do to anything else . '' By all accounts , she got a generous divorce settlement and they remain on good terms . It 's an old story to the Washington press corps and one that has been largely overlooked in the course of the campaign . Whether history encourages impartial observers to see McCain in a positive light ; as a man who has publicly accepted his personal shortcomings ; or more negatively , as a man who left a long suffering spouse for a young heiress , the bigger issue is whether his marital history could or should play a part in determining his credentials to become president . And for that matter - the actions and words of a current spouse for either candidate .
Life in the spotlight for the wives of the candidates may play a number of ways . Carol Shepp has been portrayed as angry , negative and unpatriotic . Heiress Michelle Obama is the conservatives 's second wife . McCain left his second wife , McCain , after returning from Vietnam .