Cindy McCain Adds Smiles To Campaign Trail

Wife Of Presidential Hopeful Recounts Visit To Vietnam With Operation Smile

(CBS)  Mrs. John McCain is doing more than just hitting the campaign trail these days.

On The Early Show Monday, Cindy McCain, wife of the Arizona senator and Republican presidential hopeful, discussed her recent work in Vietnam with Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization.

Operation Smile does surgeries to repair cleft palates. Doctors working for the agency repair all kinds of facial deformities around the world for $250, she said. (Click here for more information on Operation Smile.)

McCain, a board member of Operation Smile, has a daughter with a cleft palate. "That's what brought me to them," she said of her involvement with the organization.

She said the difference the surgery can make in the lives of the children is remarkable.

"These kids would be in a closet some place, or kept in a back room," she said. "It's miraculous."

In addition to her 15-year-old daughter, who was adopted from Bangladesh, the McCains have two sons and a 23-year-old daughter. Both boys are involved with the military: One attends the U.S. Naval Academy and another is in the Marines, preparing for possible deployment to Iraq in the fall.

McCain emphasized that she is proud of her sons and that her views on the war remain unchanged regardless of her son's potential deployment. The only change, she said, is that she "will join the ranks of mothers who have a child serving overseas, and will be worrying and praying with them."

All of her children support their father's presidential campaign, McCain said.

"We sat down as a family around Christmas and talked about it," she said. They were all very supportive, she added, but were concerned about global warming and questioned their father and his stance on the issue.

McCain brushed off any concerns her husband might have about trailing Rudy Giuliani in the polls and said that while his stance on the Iraq war might be hurting his campaign, he won't take a position because of polling numbers.

"His positions are his positions," she said. "He takes them because he believes in them. He's a leader. He does what he believes is right, not what's in the polling numbers."