McCain’s ‘straight talk’ on contraception

July 10, 2008

I’ve been following John McCain for quite some time, but my single favorite McCain story of all time came in March 2007, when the senator was chatting with some reporters aboard his campaign bus. The subject turned to sexual health and contraception — and McCain hadn’t the foggiest idea what to say.

Asked whether federal grants to education should focus on abstinence-only, McCain wasn’t sure. Asked whether he believes “contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV,” McCain said he had no idea. Asked if contraceptives “stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases,” McCain was dumbfounded, looked at the ceiling, and urgently motioned for his staff to rescue him.

These weren’t trick questions, but McCain ended up looking like a fool. After a quarter-century in Congress, during which time McCain has participated in thousands of policy hearings, and has voted on hundreds of bills relating to public health, but as a presidential candidate, he hasn’t the foggiest idea if contraceptives can “stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.”

The subject continues to confound the poor man.

This week, Carly Fiorina, a leading McCain advisor/surrogate and the Republican National Committee’s “Victory Chairman,” was discussing consumer-driven health insurance when she proposed “a real, live example which I’ve been hearing a lot about from women: There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice.” Yesterday, reporters asked McCain if he agrees with his top advisor:

There’s a very good reason McCain doesn’t want to talk about this.

As the NYT reported, McCain “voted against a 2005 bill requiring health insurance companies to cover birth-control pills as well as Viagra.”

So, we get confused and bumbling answers like the one in the video. If you can’t watch the clip, the WSJ described the scene nicely:

When McCain was asked for his position on the issue, he said — with a nervous laugh — “I certainly do not want to discuss that issue.”

The reporter pressed. “But apparently you’ve voted against–”

“I don’t know what I voted,” McCain said.

The reporter explained that McCain voted against a bill in 2003 that would have required health insurance companies to cover prescription birth control. “Is that still your position?” she persisted.

During the awkward exchange, with several lengthy pauses, McCain said he had no immediate knowledge of the vote. “I’ve cast thousands of votes in the Senate,” McCain said, then continued: “I will respond to — it’s a, it’s a…”

“Delicate issue,” the reporter offered, to a relieved laugh from McCain.

“I don’t usually duck an issue, but I’m — I’ll try to get back to you,” he explained.

After a pause, another reporter posed a question closer to McCain’s comfort zone: “Can I ask you about Russia?”

If it sounds to you like some of the reporters were trying to help McCain get out of this, we’re on the same page.

Nevertheless, let’s not lose the forest for the trees here. Sure, it’s embarrassing that McCain can’t answer a fairly easy question on an issue of concern to millions of women. And sure, it’s amusing that McCain and one of his top advisors don’t agree on the issue.

But the key thing to remember here is that McCain’s record on reproductive rights and sexual health is utterly miserable.

Jed has a good take on this: http://www.jedreport.com/2008/07/perhaps-im-bein.html

…it’s not that McCain didn’t want to talk about Viagra. It’s that he didn’t want to talk about birth control… Believe it or not, many wingers think birth control should be made illegal. Case in point: Mike Huckabee.

  • The reporter’s attempt to badger McCain on the irrelevant topic of Viagra smacks of ugly ageism. Democrats are supposed to fight against bias in all forms, but instead they’re embracing an anti-septuagenarian bias to try to distract from their candidate’s extreme youth and naivete. I wouldn’t be surprised if David Axelrod put this reporter up to asking this question as a way to get people thinking about the legendary sexual prowess of young black men. I know I’m thinking about it.

  • Insane Fake Professor:

    You are both a fake professor and insane. Go back to your hole or under the rock Turd Blossom resides. Apparently you are also a bigot. If you all out there are wondering why this country is FUBAR it’s because of “Low information voters” like the Insane Fake Professor. Go back to a conservative blog and give yourself a wedgie knucklehead.

  • And the fun part is …

    This man has a very real chance to become our next President.

  • Hm – I wonder if this will remove Fiorina from the list of possible VP picks for McCain.

    Too bad if it does – a failed CEO who managed to drive a profitable company into the ground and laid off a good chunk of the company’s workforce would make a great match with Mr. “Four More Years” McCain. Almost symbolic, really.

    (Seriously – is there any truth to the rumor at all that he’s considering her? Because – wow – that would just cement the idea that he really doesn’t have a freaking clue.)

  • IFP, McCain’s own surrogate made the comment. That seems relevant, doesn’t it?

  • “I don’t know what I voted,” McCain said.

    Now here we get into the area of a real life, perfect example of someone exhibiting the exact opposite of a qualification for being President of the United States. I would pose that a politician who doesn’t know how he voted and can’t explain how he stands is not the type of person we want elected. There’s no reason to even mention his military service.

    Where’s the headline? McCain Doesn’t Know What He Voted

    Where’s that vicious liberal media? Tearing him apart? No, “can we get some sweet soft questions over here stat? And make that with sprinkles!”

  • As I asked in an earlier thread, does this website have a whole new crowd of commenters or something?

    People, Insane Fake Professor is FAKE, and quite a CB treasure (an Internet tradition, even). Focus your ire on the “sincere” knuckleheads who comment here.

  • Man I missed the good professor. There is a newer crowd here since IFP last posted. Stick to the trolls people!

  • How stupid do you have to be to not have learned by now:

    Condoms reduce the spread of STDs. Other forms of contraception do not (though spermicides do a little). Birth Control Pills do nothing to stop the spread of STDs including HIV which leads to AIDs.

    Giving people condoms (and instruction on their proper use) is a life-saving policy.

    Funding women’s perscriptions for Birth Control may be giving them ‘recreational sex equality’ with men getting Viagra, but it has nothing to do with preventing the spread of desease.

    Of course, JSMcC*nt won’t fund either condom distribution or pass laws requiring health insurance companies to pay for Birth Control pills or devices. Since the first is STUPID and the second is UNFAIR, I suppose he needs to duck the issues.

  • I wonder how many diseases Old Unfaithful has spread with his abject ignorance of condom use?

  • As I asked in an earlier thread, does this website have a whole new crowd of commenters or something? -KRK

    Hopefully. Last month was the best ever, according to the man himself, so let’s hope a few stick around and add their voices to the masses.

  • We are all assuming that McC actually has some behaviors that may spread STD. Why always assume that a man with a female partner/wife is having some form of sex with her? Cindy, the C*nt, may have cut him off years ago. And we know that abstention is the preferred form of birth control and disease prevention for the Reich. So, cut him a break. He doesn’t need Viagra and he doesn’t need condoms (we used to call them rubbers), so why would he know anything about them?

    Just Askin’

    I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
    peace,
    st john

  • I know I’m thinking about it.

    Somebody pass the oxygen! I’m laughing too hard to breathe!

  • Now, now, now, you all know that free birth control, especially condoms, just makes our kids want to f&ck more! Then, if they fall into temptation, are using birth control and a sperm meets an egg, you are forcing our childrens to have an unwitting abortion on their innocent souls. Everyone knows that STDs and an unwanted child are God’s way of punishing women and we can’t stand in the way of that. If God chooses to make lemonade out of those lemons and we get more real Americans from it, hallelujah!

    On the other hand, viagra is for impotent, old, mostly white, sometimes rich men, and that is a gift from God.

    /snark


  • Funding women’s perscriptions for Birth Control may be giving them ‘recreational sex equality’ with men getting Viagra, but it has nothing to do with preventing the spread of desease.

    I hate to say it Lance,but you’re a blockhead. Birth control is a life saving policy because pregnancy is a fucking dangerous undertaking. People still die in the 21st century USofA giving birth. Preventing pregnancy when it is not wanted IS a medical issue and does save lives.

    I don’t know if you’ve had a significant other give birth or not – it was a freaking traumatic experience finding out every freaking thing that can go wrong and end up with the mother dead or possibly disabled for the rest of her life. And we were able to make a conscious decision to have the baby when it would be optimal for my wife’s health. Access to Birth control of all types – not just condoms – makes that possible and does save lives.

    IOW – STFU if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

  • Argh – I realized I left out the bit of Lance’s posting that I was actually responding to:

    Giving people condoms (and instruction on their proper use) is a life-saving policy.

    See above response about “life-saving policies” and all types of birth control.

  • RE: new crowd.

    I guess I am part of the new crowd who only learned of Steve’s insight when he did his first guest stint over at Salon.com’s War Room. It was such a vast improvement over poor Alex Koppleman (who, to his credit is getting better, but still not worth the praise Steve heaps on him all the time), that I think many of us followed Steve back home and have become loyal new readers.

  • Buffalonian,

    Just to clarify, I’m glad to see new readers and commenters (Steve certainly deserves them). I just want to people to recognize and cherish IFP for the (intentional) comedy gold that she is.

  • geez, TR (#12), now I’ll have that stuck in my head all day long

    I’m gonna knock you out – Mary said knock you out. . .

  • I don’t think women appreciate the beauty and consistency of the Republican position.

    Birth control is evil. A sin. It’s the premeditated killing of a prefetus.

    ED is a form of birth control. Therefore it must be eradicated, and that means subsidizing preventive measures to wipe it out, including Viagra and its cousins.

    Remember, the Republicans are always right. Our job is not to whine, but to appreciate them.

  • I suspect that most immediately McC doesn’t want to talk about birth control because some in the fundamentalist “base” don’t approve of b.c. Beyond that: this guy is a bully with a track record for fiercely bullying, in the coarsest terms, women, and b.c. for women gives them power. It’s power over themselves and their bodies, but hey, it’s power, and it KOs the whole receivership-womb thing. McC’s discomfort on the subject of Viagra: maybe he’s afraid people will think he’s lost his, um, faculties (along with his memory and cognitive grasp, if they ever existed), which for a fighter pilot hotdogger may be, well, unthinkable. I mean, when you fly by the seat of your pants, you may be even more aware of the seat of your pants than most.

    On another note: I came here after CB’s first stint at Salon, and really: these posts are so valuable.

  • This NEEDS to be brought up in a debate or somehow by Obama. If he says something sensible he makes his evangelical base mad. If he says contraception doesn’t work and abstinence only is the only way, he makes anyone with a brain mad. Big lose-lose situation for McCain. It’s one of the best issues where him trying to please both sides (wingnuts and moderates) will completely fail if it is brought into the light.

    The moderates and religious nuts he is trying to court are completely at odds with each other and this massive weakness needs to be exploited better. Cultural issues are where they are most at odds with each other. It doesn’t work as well on foreign policy or monetary matters, which is why he attempts to keep the debate purely on those topics.

  • well, see, the reason mccain can’t answer any of those questions is that he is finally choking on the enormous confusion created by the repubs making crap up all the time — mccain can’t remember which is real and which isn’t and which is good now and which is not.

    poor mccain. hoisted by the repub petard.

  • NonyNony, both my wife and my daughter have given birth, the first one in my presence in fact. So actually, I think I do know what is involved.

    So why don’t you shove it up yours and next time just point out that pregnancy is a dangerous process that can kill women…

    … and which they are VASTLY less likely to find themselves in if they don’t engage in recreational sex.

  • pregnancy is a dangerous process that can kill women…

    … and which they are VASTLY less likely to find themselves in if they don’t engage in recreational sex.

    Um, all sex is recreational, Lance, if you’re doing it right. Even when you’re trying to conceive. No, really, it’s true.

  • Um, all sex is recreational, Lance, if you’re doing it right. — Maria, @29

    That qualifier of yours (“if you’re doing it right”) is what makes the difference. There are, however, plenty of men — and perhaps Lance is one of them — who would prefer that women assume the “close your eyes and think of England” position, even in the marital bed, anything else being too demanding of the man. I mean.. here he is, just trying to get his rocks off as quickly as possible, because he has to be up in the morning (for *real* work), and here’s the little woman demanding fun and games…

  • -daze, @30,

    Don’t know about you (or Maria, for that matter) but, for some of us (women of “certain age”), birth control is much less of an issue than recreational sex 🙂

  • I know one thing for sure: contraception would’ve saved me at least two whole bundles of trouble, plus a good deal of money. Good thing for me the little bundles are finally working and supporting themselves.

  • McCain seems to have a problem. He’s like a fellow trying to herd a bunch of cats. He knows he’s not going to get the black vote. He most likely is aware that getting the Hispanic vote is going to be tough, and it should go without saying that Hillary’s Democrats sure aren’t going to vote for him come November after they’ve had a chance to vent. He has to worry about the conservatives on the right who think he’s a weasle. He can’t afford to lose the Fundies, and if he’s seen to be less than homophobic, he risks losing them. Yet if he doesn’t support Gays and Lesbians, they’re gone. Meanwhile the Independent voters many of whom although fiscally conservative but socially liberal are eyeballing what he has to say. Pandering to all groups will catch up to him if he can’t keep the MSM in love with him, and silently sucking his thumb is not an answer either. My. My. My. What’s an old fogie to do?

  • Maria, you are playing with definitions. If you are trying to get pregnant, then sex is procreational. If not, then it is recreational.

    And no, my wife does not have to think of England, thank you.

    You guys are getting a little twisted here. My point, if you have the English skills to absorb it (libra, I’m surprised at you) is that John Sidney McC*nt should by know now how to deal with these questions. That he doesn’t is amazing.

    That NonyNony and Maria can’t read that without engaging in ad hominum attacks is just sad.

  • Lance, Lance, Lance. The tone and content of your post say you definitely aren’t doing it right.

    And why would you think McCain should be any better at answering these questions that you’ve been? He’s got 25 years of never having been asked them by a barbecue-loving media. Indeed, every time a reporter straight-talks him now he looks flummoxed, furious or both, which will make for good entertainment throughout the summer and early fall. Pass the popcorn. Here, I made extra for your wife. 😉

  • Trying to determine my sexual expertise from a comment on how dumb JSMcC*nt is? That’s a reach Maria.

    Watching JSMcC*nt flummoxed is vastly fun (Rachel just repeated the WHOLE THING on Countdown) but I can’t believe he’s that hopeless.

    I don’t have much respect for the Republican’t party, but his pending nomination isn’t doing much for the shred left.

  • Can’t wait for the debates. Man, I can’t wait until EVERYONE watches McCain say some more outrageously stupid stuff on live TV and the polls come out with some egregious number like 92% OBAMA, 4% MCCAIN, 4% UNDECIDED come out.

    Christ almighty, even die-hard Republicans will vote for Obama soon. This old man is hysterical.

    And can I say — I love this blog. Every day is another laugh-out-loud moment. Clueless on contraception and social security. And this is the BEST candidate for the Republican party? No wonder our country has been destroyed.

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