Spouse sniping on display

In two TV interviews aired this morning, Cindy McCain did not back down from her seeming criticism of Michelle Obama over her remark that she was "really proud" of America for the first time in her adult lifetime with the success of her husband's campaign for change.

On ABC's "Good Morning America," McCain, the wife of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, said of her counterpart, the wife of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama, "I don't know why she said what she said. All I know is that I have always been proud of my country."

And on CNN's "American Morning," she said her initial criticism of Obama's comment was not a planned political attack.

"I’m an emotional woman when it comes to service to our country," she said. "I’ve watched many people children leave and go serve. This is something that is the fiber of the McCain family. It was nothing more than me saying, look, I believe in this country so strongly."

While she was on morning TV at home, McCain was physically abroad today, in Vietnam to showcase her charity work, the Associated Press is reporting.

McCain has made several trips to Vietnam, where John McCain, was shot down during the Vietnam War and held for more than five years as a prisoner of war.

The AP said she visited the coastal town of Nha Trang where about 100 children born with cleft palates and cleft lips were awaiting free plastic surgery provided by the US charity Operation Smile. The operations will take place on one of the US Navy's floating hospitals, the USNS Mercy.

"This is what I do, and this is what revitalizes me, personally," she told the AP. "The campaign is extremely important, of course, but this is also important to me, and so you try to balance everything."