This is #77 in our continuing series, “Around the Churl in 80 Days,” exploring the 80+ reasons John McCain cannot be our next President.
Today’s entry may seem like a trivial matter, but ponder what it means. John Sidney McCain III is asked a question on the Straight Talk Express. What follows is anything but straight talk. He obviously struggles to come up with an intellectual context for the question, much less a coherent response.
Is his reaction because he is uncomfortable with talking about Viagra or birth control? Is his reaction due to an absence of a canned talking point retort provided by his staff? Does he recognize the question is fraught with danger as it is loaded with health care, gender equity, and prescription drug coverage issues?
Was this just an extended senior moment? There’s a happy prospect as the next four years unfold! I’d rather avoid the cheap shot.
Let’s give him credit for thinking through the question (if that’s what he’s doing since it looks like he could be considering the consequences of jumping from the moving bus). If he answers that health care plans should pay for birth control, he risks alienating his supporters on the radical right who oppose contraception, not to mention flip flopping on his Senate vote. If he answers that healthcare plans should not pay for Viagra, he risks losing the votes of millions of older men, and the women who run from them. If he suggests that healthcare plans should pay for both, he comes out on the side of government meddling in health care plans–something the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies would regard as treasonous from someone who takes their PAC dollars. What to do? What to do???!!!
Imagine a different situation. Instead of a non-threatening reporter asking a question for which McCain is unprepared, what if this were a question posed by a world leader like Putin or Mahmoud Abbas? Is this the deer-in-the-headlights look we want from our President?
Almost makes you long for “The Decider,” doesn’t it?
Filed under: McCain, Reasons, Republicans | Tagged: McCain, Reasons, Republicans
