This week, John McCain hosted a campaign event in South Carolina, in which one charming elderly voter stood up to ask, “How do we beat the bitch?” McCain, assuming the voter was referring to Hillary Clinton, responded, “That’s an excellent question.”
No one really expected the senator to upbraid his supporter for her obvious lack of dignity, but the classy thing to do would be to say something to suggest he didn’t find that kind of talk acceptable. Indeed, just a few days ago, McCain repudiated his own mother, on national television, when she made anti-Mormon comments about Mitt Romney. He went out of his way to make clear — twice — that he didn’t agree with his mother’s remarks. He couldn’t do the same thing in this case?
Today, Team McCain is not only spinning what happened, it’s recreating the facts to suit the campaign’s purposes. For example, campaign manager Rick Davis offered this description of events in an email to supporters:
“A voter used a word that I would not have used to describe Senator Hillary Clinton and asked the Senator how he was going to beat her. Senator McCain first responded by saying that he respected Senator Clinton, as he has said repeatedly throughout the campaign. Then, focusing on the question, he pointed to the new Rasmussen national poll showing that he is the only Republican candidate who can beat her in a general election.”
Actually, that’s completely wrong. There’s a video that proves it. McCain didn’t first respond by talking about his respect for Clinton, he first responded by saying that the “bitch” query was “an excellent question.” He mentioned his respect for “anyone who gets the nomination of the Democrat [sic] Party” as an afterthought.
As it turns out, the campaign that should be embarrassed by all of this is actually proud of itself. So much so that it’s sending out the video of the exchange to supporters.
Last night, CNN’s Rick Sanchez criticized McCain for his handling of the “bitch” question. Today, McCain is lashing out at the network — and indirectly bragging about the whole mess. Here’s an email sent to supporters from the campaign:
The CNN Network, affectionately known as the Clinton News Network, has stooped to an all-time low and is gratuitously attacking John McCain for not defending Hillary Clinton enough when a South Carolina voter used the ‘B’ word to describe her when John McCain stopped into a luncheon yesterday at the Trinity restaurant in Hilton Head, SC.
A voter used a word that I would not have used to describe Senator Hillary Clinton and asked the Senator how he was going to beat her. Senator McCain first responded by saying that he respected Senator Clinton, as he has said repeatedly throughout the campaign….
As an independent news agency, CNN owes John McCain an apology because of the outrageous behavior of their network host Rich Sanchez…Senator McCain is a fighter and he is not going to back down to CNN.
How incredibly hack-tacular. It’s as if McCain wants to brag about his lack of class. Instead of hoping this goes away, McCain thinks this is an opportunity to be exploited.
As for the media, the Politico’s Mike Allen responded to all of this on CNN today, saying, “[W]hat Republican voter hasn’t thought that? What voter in general hasn’t thought that and what people like about McCain is his straight talk, his candor.”
Yes, media personalities are now complementing McCain for all of this. How very, very odd.