The contrasts of Cindy McCain

The contrasts of Cindy McCain -- chicagotribune.com: "
This campaign is a completely different experience for McCain from 2000, when her husband ran on what was essentially a good-government platform. This time the political debate has been focused on war while the McCains' son Jimmy has been in combat overseas. Everything about the race has been personal."

I was scared to death for him. Any mother is. And each day, we would go someplace and of course, usually there was a parent or parents there of a fallen hero," she said. "To me, it was a constant reminder of what could happen."Throughout Jimmy's deployment, Cindy McCain kept her BlackBerry close at hand. "She slept with that phone attached to her wrist," said her close friend Sharon Harper. "She never knew when he would call, and she just waited for it.

"Once, while riding the bus in Florida during the primary there, McCain set her phone to vibrate and put it in her lap. When she looked down a little while later, she realized that she had missed Jimmy's call and burst into tears.

Each day on the campaign trail, McCain has worn her Blue Star pin — a replica of the Blue Star flag—worn by mothers of children who are on active duty in theater. She alternated a second pin, wearing a USMC or a Navy pin for the military branches her sons serve in."