Saving A Child

Gateway Pundit deserves credit for shining fresh light on this story. In his Berlin speech Obama uttered the following lines-

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here – what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

What he, and I'm sure a great deal of Americans too, might not be aware of is that John McCain and his wife, Cindy, have already done so- by adopting a child from Bangladesh and raising her in America as their own.

(I)n 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa's orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about. Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. "I hope she can stay with us," she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget. ...(T)here was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.

"We were called at midnight by Cindy," Wes Gullett remembers, and "five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L.A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport." Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, "I never saw a hospital bill" for her care.

No lofty rhetoric or bids for glowing publicity, just an act of incredible compassion. While Obama makes demands for others to create "change" - he "will require you to work" and "will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed"- the McCains have already saved an infant from death and raised her as their own.

While Barack spouts this airy hope-and-change nonsense- and talks of forcing high school and college students to perform government approved community service whether they want to or not- it's interesting to highlight the differences between the McCains and the Obamas. Cindy not only saved this girl but she's also involved in a charity called Operation Smile- and given the terrible treatment John McCain endured in Vietnam it's pretty impressive to see her there doing what she can to help Vietnamese kids. This video is well worth watching- in fact, I'd go so far as to say that's it's heart-warming-



As you'll see Cindy McCain also flew a child from Vietnam to America, paid for her surgery and looked after her in her own home. While she's doing that, Michelle Obama's lamenting the cash she spends on activites for her own kids-

“I know we’re spending — I added it up for the first time — we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we’re spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth.”

Not to mention her complaints about the terrible cost of fresh fruit for her children.

It's also worth noting that while Barack complains about needing to do more for the poor and the needy, his own charitable contributions are notoriously low-

The average American household donates 2.2% of their income to charity, while the Obama's gave less than 1% between 1997 and 2002 (0.2% in 1998). In 2002, when their income was in the top 2% in the US, they donated a mere 0.4% to charity. They gave $1,050 to charity, compared with the average American household's gift of $1,872.

In fact, to mention another Gateway Pundit catch, Obama hasn't even bothered to donate or help to raise any money for a school in Kenya named in his honour- after promising he would help them.

"I know you are working very hard and struggling to bring up this school, but I have said I will assist the school and I will do so."

I guess there was no tangible political benefit for Obama to make good on his word. We already know that he's not particularly concerned with the welfare of others if he can't turn it into a good photo-op. No, he would rather legislate that others are forced to help.