Just moments ago, John McCain kicked off a campaign event in Wisconsin, the focus of which “will be women in business and the economic challenges they face.”
It makes sense that McCain would target women voters, who, if polls are any indication, prefer Barack Obama by a fairly strong margin. But I don’t think McCain appreciates just how awkward his outreach to women is going to be.
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.”
On Wednesday afternoon, a reporter asked McCain if he agrees with his top advisor, and the senator was hopelessly, embarrassingly lost. On MSNBC last night, Rachael Maddow and The Nation’s Chris Hayes highlighted just how big a headache this is becoming for McCain.
Of all the embarrassments McCain has had this week — and there have been many (more on this later) — I thought calling Social Security a “disgrace” would be the one that stuck. But there’s just something hilarious about watching McCain squirm.
More importantly, though, Fiorina actually raised an important point — a lot of women do care about this; they are bothered by the insurance plans’ policies; and they do want a choice.
Which makes McCain’s opposition to Fiorina’s position all the more salient in a campaign context.
Nico Pitney had this important item last night:
How damaging is this video, now spreading around the web, showing John McCain squirming, stumbling, and then claiming ignorance about his position on providing women with birth control?
Apparently, very damaging. A Democratic Party strategist familiar with internal polling said McCain’s two votes against requiring insurance companies to cover prescription birth control have been polled in battleground states and had tremendous resonance with women, including independents and Republicans.
(Polling conducted last month for NARAL Pro-Choice America showed similar data: 79 percent of pro-choice independent women and 61 percent of pro-choice Republican women said that McCain’s votes against birth control access raised “serious doubts” in their minds about McCain.)
More troubling for the presumptive GOP nominee is that the video of his awkward exchange aboard the Straight Talk Express is getting wider attention from major media outlets (which apparently can’t resist the Viagra angle).
Note to self: stories about sex sell; stories about Social Security don’t.
And to reiterate a point from yesterday, 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. His rhetoric is awful, but his record is worse.