Gleaming Cindy finally steps out of shadows

CINDY McCAIN is the wasted asset of this election campaign. A gleaming, lynx-eyed blonde who is smart, cheerful and articulate, she had disappeared into the shadow of the full-strength Sarah Palin and artful Michelle Obama.

As her spouse was swimming upstream in his final push to overturn Barack Obama's momentum, Mrs McCain emerged last night into the limelight in the nick of voting time, giving her first solo broadcast interview since her husband announced his candidacy back in April.

On the Larry King show she allowed her Fifties beehive to descend more fetchingly around her shoulders and wore an exquisite crimson suit with black cashmere jumper. Probably everything Mrs McCain possesses is exquisite. Independently wealthy as the daughter of a well-connected Phoenix family, she is chairman of the vast beer distribution company her father founded and had personal earnings nearing $7 million in the last tax year.

Ms Palin's combination of compelling charisma and equalling compelling erratic performances have pushed her out of the limelight in the clinching stages of the race.

Mrs McCain, in her final plea for her husband's case to be heard, was impelled to spend a large chunk of her encounter with Mr King defending Ms Palin's judgment in allowing Republican funds to pay $150 000 for a new campaign wardrobe.

"It seems a very silly thing to get upset about, with all that's facing the country right now," she said. It could not be said that Mrs M has the common touch.

When pressed on whether Ms Palin had been a blessing or a curse to her husband's campaign, Mrs McCain did feisty battle on her behalf: "She is marvellous. She's been an inspiration to women all over the world and absolutely I think she was treated very poorly in the press. She is a unique and a very gifted woman in all the things she has done and what a great vice president she will make."

This now looks unlikely. Indeed, Mrs McCain's highlighting of the role of the press she also attacked the "viciousness of the media" unwittingly reinforced the impression that the Republicans are anticipating failure and looking for scapegoats.

Nonetheless, there is rather more to the first lady manquée than her starchy image suggests. She has her pilot's licence and frequently flies solo, a master's degree in teaching special needs children and adopted a fourth child in 1991 from Bangladesh. As a philanthropist, she funds emergency medical missions to war-torn countries and is outspoken on human rights in Burma.

Initially reluctant to fully enter the campaign (she was at her husband's side throughout his nomination battle in 2000 and disliked the pressure), she has nonetheless intervened at strategically important points to add style and some irreverence to a campaign which never really took flight. At the weekend, she appeared on satirical show Saturday Night Live in a double act with Mr McCain, pretending to sell off her jewellery on the QVC shopping channel to raise funds.

Her vast wealth is not something the McCain camp has been keen to discuss after his lapse in forgetting the number of houses they own (seven). She and her husband famously keep separate finances, the result of a pre-nuptial agreement. She bailed out his bid for the Republican nomination when other backers fell by the wayside and once hand-signed 4,000 cards thanking constituents for their support. That skill might well come in useful after tomorrow, even if Mrs McCain did not look like a woman confident of adding an eighth home on Pennsylvania Avenue to her collection.