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Opinion: Cindy McCain enroute to Georgia, the other one, with all the Russians

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At a fundraiser in Sacramento today, John McCain happened to leak word that his wife, Cindy McCain, is on her way to Georgia.

Finally, she could get in.

The candidate’s wife, who’s a frequent foreign traveler for her own charitable and humanitarian causes, has been trying to organize a trip into the country since Russia invaded South Ossetia and elsewhere two weeks ago, according to her spokeswoman Melissa Shuffield.

Shuffield said that McCain, who is traveling with the U.N.’s World Food Program, plans to visit with wounded Georgian soldiers and meet with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. John ‘We are all Georgians’ McCain has known the president since the Georgian was a student and has visited that country several times. McCain says they’ve talked by phone often in recent days.

This is not the first time Cindy McCain has broken off from the campaign trail with her husband to travel the world. This year alone she’s been to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Rwanda and Kosovo with her work on various charities.

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But still, it’s probably no coincidence that McCain’s Georgia visit comes on the heels of newly-anointed Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s trip there.

The campaign says the timing of the trip had nothing to do with the Democratic National Convention, where Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, will speak today.

McCain plans to return to the U.S. late Wednesday, according to Shuffield. TIME.com has more about the trip here.

In other Georgia news, the White House has announced that Vice President Dick Cheney plans to travel to that troubled country next week.

-- Kate Linthicum

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