Cindy McCain has been a political candidate’s wife for almost the entire course of her 28-year marriage to John McCain, the man running for president of the United States. The woman the Arizona senator affectionately calls "Cindy Lou" is portrayed as picture perfect with impeccable style, shy and reserved, not wanting to take any of the spotlight away from her husband or to get involved in policy.

The perfection of Cindy McCain is a theme that repeats itself in interviews those who know her gave to The Washington Post - this woman who hid her drug addiction from her husband for years, who fought her fear of campaigning via small planes by getting her pilot’s license without telling her husband, then buying a plane. There’s a slight self-consciousness in her manner, and she is not easily rattled.

"You just can’t just help but love her, honey," says John’s mother, 96-year-old Roberta McCain who describes Cindy as a seamless mother who has managed her four children’s lives with seeming effortlessness. "I don’t see any chink in her armor, and I’m not biased."

Cindy Lou Hensley grew up as an only child in an upper-class section of Phoenix. Her dad, Jim Hensley, founded what became a large Anheuser-Busch distributor, and her mom, Marguerite, was a proper belle who emphasized impeccable manners. Today, Cindy is probably worth more than $100 million.

Friends describe her as a "problem solver" who found "strong" ways to get over her fears, such as how Cindy kicked her own addiction to prescription pain killers before John even found out. In 2004, Cindy, 49, had a stroke during lunch with friends, finding herself suddenly unable to talk. She says she’d stopped taking her blood pressure medication.

"I had the impression that Cindy was happy to talk about it after she’d conquered it, and not when it was frightening," said friend Lisa Keegan, an education adviser in both McCain presidential campaigns. "She’s less inclined to want to be asking people to help her."

Cindy now works primarily with Operation Smile, a group that repairs cleft palates and other facial deformities all over the world, and Halo Trust, a nonprofit that performs land-mine removal in countries affected by war. She has been to Vietnam, Morocco, Angola, Kosovo and many other countries in her philanthropic work. She is currently traveling in Rwanda with the One campaign to raise awareness about AIDS and poverty.

Cindy said recently that she sees herself serving a limited role in a McCain White House.

"She’s not in there forging policy," says Mark McKinnon, the media adviser who left the campaign recently. "She just weighs in quietly and occasionally when she sees opportunities or problems that the campaign might address."

For now, she’s helping her husband on the trail any way she can. During a recent visit to a Harlem charter school in New York City, a girl asks for an autograph. Cindy obliges, and a minor riot breaks out as the other children try to get their own and the teacher tells them, "You can photocopy it."

Cindy slips out the door, having written in No. 2 pencil: Thanks for having me. Cindy McCain.