Cindy McCain is into drifting!

[uboys]

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/n...ory?id=3571491

Cindy McCain doesn't remember all the details. It might have been six years ago. Maybe seven. But this much, at least, McCain recalls with perfect clarity: She was watching television with her oldest son, Jack, when footage flashed across the screen of race cars skidding sideways as though they were on ice.

Looks kind of cool, McCain thought to herself, but how'd they do that?

For most people, the curiosity probably would have ended there. But McCain, the wife of the Republican nominee for president, Sen. John McCain, is anything but ordinary. Although a wide swath of the public views her as reserved and distant, she is actually quite the opposite in private. When Cindy McCain, 54, encounters something that intrigues her, she embraces it with the zeal of a toddler on Christmas Eve.

And so McCain began to learn as much as possible about this mysterious driving technique. It turned out it was called drifting and had origins tracing back to the mountains of central Japan in the early 1990s. Months after first seeing drifting on television, McCain traveled to Japan with Jack, now a senior at the Naval Academy and an avid fan of motorsports, to take drifting lessons with a top instructor.

"I love it," McCain said, though she described herself as a below-average drifter. "I'm probably a little too cautious with it because it is abnormal from what you're taught when you're taught to drive. You're taught to keep control of your car. Everything you were taught in driver's ed, forget. That's what drifting is about."

[RamJet502]

[plane]

One little fact that like that can change your whole perspective about a person.
Everyone has a story.
Licensed pilot to take her husband across Arizona to win a campaign.
Recovered from a stroke.
Baddass drifter.
Not bad in a tight fitting cocktail dress either.

I'm glad to see that she is so much more than the media caricature bestowed upon her.

[big swede]

She clearly doesn't know what she is talking about. Drifting is all about car control and drivers ed always teaches you to steer into the skid. Just because your rear end is sliding doesn't mean you're out of control.

[eurohazard]

Originally Posted by big swede

She clearly doesn't know what she is talking about. Drifting is all about car control and drivers ed always teaches you to steer into the skid. Just because your rear end is sliding doesn't mean you're out of control.

Uh, yes, however to a self described "below-average drifter"....the sensation is the same.

I'm sorry, but she is awesome!

[Bravada]

"When you hear that stepfordwifeish..."
"I don't understand it..."

Cindy, the line before you've just explained to us why. If you stop acting as if you were on strong medication or under mind control, people will stop saying such things about you. Did they show her actually doing that in the program - you can't discern who is in those cars in the video?

[wescoent]

I read that article about an hour ago, and I have not been able to stop smiling since.

When was the last time we had an auto enthusiast in the White House? GWB's F-250? Clinton's I6 Mustang?

I can already see the 240SX screaming through the trees at Camp David. State dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan? How about a drift comp instead?

I don't understand why they aren't leveraging this. Get Cindy, John, Sarah, and Todd down to some drag strips in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and get them behind the wheel for a bit, then do a town hall meeting in the parking lot. We have a drifter, a fighter pilot, a moose hunter, and a snowmobile racer... blue collar America is theirs to lose.

[jaywestfall]

And on top of it all, I'll bet if you asked her for a Budweiser, she'd give you one!

[member12]

I'm reading about the possible first dude's history into snowmachine racing. 2000 miles through alaska at 100 mph in the "Iron Dog" race.


The republicans have cool spouses.

[Buick61]

This should impress the dirt-for-brains redneck NASCAR set that was already going to vote Republican.

[Bravada]

Well, elections are not about drawing people who don't like you on your side - that's rarely possible, especially in a two-partisan election. It is about cementing your base and making sure they turn up at the booth.