at the
White House on March 5, 2008 She was active and visible in
her husband's second presidential campaign during 2007 and 2008, She wore her hair in a fashionable but severe style and was sometimes seen with an unsmiling countenance in her appearances. The campaign exacerbated her migraine headaches and she sometimes had to wear dark glasses to shield herself from bright lights. McCain stated that the American public wanted a
First Lady of the United States who would tend toward a traditional role in that position. She would not attend
Cabinet meetings, She continued to expand her roles in such organizations, joining in April 2008 the board of
Grateful Nation Montana, which provides scholarships and services to the children of Montana service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. She made statements critical of the
Bush administration for not deploying enough troops during the
Iraq War. In February 2008, McCain made news by being critical of
Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama, who had said, "And let me tell you something: For the first time in my adult lifetime I am really proud of my country." McCain, who was genuinely offended by the remark, replied: "I am proud of my country. I don't know about you—if you heard those words earlier—I am very proud of my country." Also in February 2008, she publicly appeared beside her husband during a press conference in response to a
newspaper report regarding his connection to a lobbyist. McCain faced media scrutiny about her wealth, spending habits, and financial obligations. She initially declined to release her separate income tax returns, saying that it was a privacy issue and she would not release the returns even if she became First Lady She later released the first two pages of her 2006 return, which showed $6 million in income for that year (including nearly $570,000 in
itemized deductions and more than $1.7 million paid in federal income taxes). The campaign said that any decisions about how to handle her role in Hensley & Co. if she became First Lady would not be made until that time. she was initially under some political pressure to help oppose the deal and keep Anheuser-Busch under American ownership. . In June 2008, a
Rasmussen Reports poll found that 49 percent of voters viewed McCain favorably and 29 percent unfavorably, while an
ABC News/
The Washington Post poll found figures of 39 percent and 25 percent respectively. Her style and fashion sense was the subject of much media scrutiny. McCain was compared to former first lady
Nancy Reagan, as well as her demeanor. Early in the campaign, some
recipes attributed to McCain turned out to be copied from other sources; the campaign attributed the problem to an error by an intern.
As the spouse of presidential nominee, McCain spoke on both the opening and final nights of the early September
2008 Republican National Convention. On the first night, truncated due to national attention regarding
Hurricane Gustav, she appeared with First Lady
Laura Bush to deliver short remarks encouraging support for hurricane relief efforts along the
Gulf Coast, and on the last night, she introduced the seven McCain children and spoke about how her husband's love for his country had been passed on to them. In October 2008, she increased the intensity of her public remarks against Obama's candidacy, speaking with surprising vitriol in accusing the Obama campaign of being the dirtiest in history and saying of his position against a war-funding bill, "The day that Senator Obama cast a vote not to fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body." The stresses of the campaign caused the McCain's weight to fall under . ==Post-2008 election activities==