This morning, 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.
Nico Pitney had an important item last night on the political consequences of all of this.
Filed Under: Countdown/Keith Olbermann, Election 08, John McCain
No Trackbacks To “Exhibit A in how not to target women voters“








Oh yes, women just luuuuuve being targeted!!!
If he gets the vote of two women after this he will be doing well.
Carly Fiorina and Cindy McCain are probably locks.
Poor old bastard, he doesn’t have a !@#$ing clue.
Yeah, but McCain Now Supports the Morning-After Pill for Stupidity
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=2000
Do McCain’s boneheaded blunders make you proud to be a democrat, or is that a whole other kettle of fish? And if you are proud, in God’s name, why?
“Those women would like a choice.”
I like the wording.
Let’s see him squirm around this one .
He called Social Security a disgrace? Then why doesn’t he skip out on it and do what old people did in the past: live out on filthy streets alone and abandoned by their families because they were too much of a burden.
After all, the GOP thinks Medieval Europe is evidently the Society of ChoiceTM….
Personally, I don’t think either should be provided under health care insurance. What’s next, the candlelight dinner and a bottle of Champagne?
But with populations exploding planet wide coupled with decreasing resources, it behooves us to supply condoms and birth control pills to everyone who will use them.
fiorina is a good gop choice for vp as she has experience spying on americans, got caught, and avoided prison. those are true blue gop credentials.
Owned, pwned, BONED. Pleeeeease let the debates start, I want to see old white guy bled white (metaphorically, your sitemonitorness).
McCain shows American woman what he thinks by the conduct he does to his own wife. A decent woman wouldn’t like to be called a cu*t by her husband or any man. Something is wrong with this couple and their conduct shows it. I’ve listen to how the Media used every bad name in the book when talking about Hillary.
McCain is truly clue less and even has memory lost. The Media keeps making excuses for his mistakes but it’s not helping as he continues. With the comment about Social Security it would surely be a way to lose an election as we have so many baby boomers voting this year. McCain will lose the election with no help needed by Obama. Look as bad as McCain is and the position the Bush Administration has put the USA even Homer Simpson could beat McCain.
Viagra and a Hummer.
Yup. It’s a man’s world.
Bush has been a puppet during his administration with Cheney, Rove, and other neocons in control. McCain would be a puppet also.
Alice X (Chomsky Nader) status quObama - Change you can pretend in @ 2:
i heard ma mccain and a couple of her bingo bitches are gonna vote for him.
and supposedly nash mccabe’s still weighing her options…
I can`t believe McCain is so clueless.Karl Rove and the swiftboaters have their work cut out for them,but when push comes to shove they`ll rely on the thing that has served them so well since 2000-the fix.
this guy mcain is such an idiot and provides so much fodder yet the media let him be and focus all their attention on obama.
they did the same thing to gore and kerry.
the dem has to jump through every single hoop and the repug gets and pass.
i ran into tucker carlson one time and i didn’t say anything to him, but now i really wish i would have planted a big spit wad in his face.
it’s not civil… but it pales in comparison to the misery and murder they create everyday.
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful day in America if presidential candidates were free to speak about sexuality? Apparently it won’t happen in my lifetime.
All of those silly, deluded, LADIES like you see in the documentary “Jesus Camp” will vote for him. I wonder why they’re like that.
“Er, ummm, ah, well, let me see. Yeeeaahh. OK I’ll give you my position on this as soon as they feed it to m… I review it. Yup.”
Ye gods what a maroon.
Not to mention that McCain voted against the right of women to sue for equal pay after the right wing Supremes turned the law on its head.
Alice X (Chomsky Nader) status quObama - Change you can pretend in @ 2:
Look for Carly to wander off next week. He’s in so far over his head, it’s embarrassing to watch. But he ain’t brown, so he gets votes.
His look at about 1:31 is just hilarious. He obviously has his own stash of those blue pills. I think that’s partly why he floundered - he was riddled with embarrassment and couldn’t focus on what was really being asked. Sadly, the other part is he doesn’t give a flying F*&% about anything he votes on. What a complete waste of a Senate seat.
Most women don’t vote for a candidate based on a single issue. That said, McSame is pathetic on a broad range of issues. And as DJR wonders, doesn’t McSame bother to read the bills he votes on? Oh, nevermind.
With any luck Fiorina will be as good for the GOP and McCain as she was for HP!
McCain’s handlers would be best served by just letting him deal with “live” action once per week with planted questions and no follow-ups. The MSM are just propping the old fool up for now because it is so long until November–clearly, if they were to carve him to pieces now, they will nothing to talk about for the next four months. The man is an empty suit and an intellectual dullard.
I find it amazing, as someone pointed out above, that this and all the OTHER McCain flubs get so little traction in the “regular” [read: that used by “low information voters”] media.
We need an equivalent of Fox News that just plays every one of these gaffes on a continuous loop.
Well…I think we found someone Sen. McCain does not refer to as, “my friend.”
What would Zeus do? @ 23:
And lucent… both of which she ran to the ground and only bounced when she left.
good luck on the obama bott dushbags getting the womens votes after you said you didnt need them! to win!chickens comeing home to roost!
tr @ 8:
Don’t forget: take a company with the tradition and solidity of HP and literally run it to the ground.
Being a complete and utter poor manager and overall human failure seems to be the mayor GOP qualification…
swampfox @ 28:
?????????? Care to write in standard English, so I can understand what you are trying to say?
swampfox @ 28:
“comeing”???
I am now certain that these trolls are actually chatbots LOL!
With all of the people in this country who are not rich. How do Republicans get elected for any political office?
sorry if you dont know what doushbags you are it wont help to explain it to you!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
My 84 year old mother feels really sorry for McCain. She laughs first and then says how embarrassed she feels for him because he seems so much like Mr. Mcgoo!!
She keeps asking me if his running is a joke!!
THis is going to be the best presidential smackdown in favor of Democrats in US History!!!!
Check out Meet the Press on Sunday
An exclusive debate:
The McCain campaign vs. the Obama campaign on the economy, taxes, gas prices & more.
Squaring off: RNC Victory Chair and former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina for the McCain campaign and
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the national co-chair of the Obama campaign.
Both are on the potential VP list
I bet Sen Claire McCaskill will have Carly Fiorina stammering on her lies about McCain’s tax and economic plan.
It would be funny if McCaskill ask Fiorina about McCain’s initiatives for women, such as paying for Viagra, but not birth control pills.
As a prosecuting attorney McCaskill frequently grilled liars.
It’s stunning that Fiorina doesn’t appear to know her candidate’s stance on this issue or the GOP’s either for that matter: They’re against contraceptives and choice. Maybe McSame will clue her in….
His social security plan favors Euthanasia.
Who’s McCains brain? @ 12:
“would be”?
well said….
Can I admit something? From what I’ve seen, I don’t really like Countdown.
Oh, don’t misunderstand me, I’m very glad that there is a progressive counterpart to the innumerable shows dedicated to right-wing lunacy. But the “interviews” on Countdown seem like scripted circle jerks among two or more people who already know they agree with one another. Unfortunately, that may be the only way to disseminate genuinely progressive viewpoints on television these days, and I do love both Olbermann and Maddow, but I do wish we could have serious, sober, multifaceted discourse in the media.
Thought bubble for McCain during that Q&A:
“JOE LIEBERMAN, Where Are You When I Need You!!?”
swampfox @ 28:
Wow. We have a graduate of the “No child left behind” program onboard.
My 10 year old uses English more intelligently.
His first language is Japanese and he’s only studied English for 4 years.
It was an easy yes or no question that he asked. She wasn’t bringing up a complex multi part legislation. It’s not straight talk when he can’t make a clear position on something like that.
Karen @ 40:
Although I’d say I do like Couthdown, I totally agree. What we really need is people like Olbermann and Maddow (and even Chris Wallace, the one person at Faux who shows a little bit of journalistic integrity on rare occasions) have people on who hold varying views and ask them tough, real questions, instead of always having on people who agree with them and giving softballs, or occasionally having on someone from the other side and asking irrelevant, stupid, or leading questions. I’m now living in Ireland and it was almost surprising to be reminded that that kind of journalism does still exist. Sadly not in the US, even in the non-MSM, which is mostly advocacy-oriented.
Does McSame like to smell his fingers after he does that “hands under the armpits” thing?
Tim in Japan Says: good or you sonny , now if youll just stay in japan and just forget about comeing back here we can all feel safer dont forget to vist the many fine attractions while your there ! i found japan to be quite a fine place to vist , by the way if you see any 6ft 4 japanese around thier probably my bastard children, syonora
When are women going to understand? Fuckeduplicans want women barefoot and pregnant. One choice=No choice.
1. Men get insurance money for blue pill.
2. Women get pregnant.
3. Women get no insurance money for birth control.
4. Women get no equal pay for equal work.
5. Women get no help with childcare.
Oh yeah, don’t get fat when you’re pregnant.
And one more thing, Cindy McCain, make sure you walk 10 steps behind me.
Hayes assumes incorrectly. Fiorina stated on NPR yesterday she is pro-life.
http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....d=92442919
FF to TC 2:07
Wow - that was ugly. Grandpa really lost it there. Obama needs to jump all over this one.
42 Tim in Japan Says: sorry buddy your kids dont mean jack shit to me, or you either , ive been to japan long before your daddy spawned you , and maby youd be better off teaching them kids chinese since they will probably own japan and the rest of the pacific soon, when they do take japan you can impress them with you and the kids knowlege of the japanese , lingo! tell my old enemies the chinese ol swappy says hi!
To #40 and #44:
Dream on. “Rational discourse” on cable or MSM news shows won’t be happening in our lifetimes - heck, it rarely happens even in the Senate - the most illustrious deliberative body in the universe (according to Senators)!!
Count down is good as it does provide some actual facts and, of course, comic relief, which is pretty important in these days of rampant gun violence. But, all of these people are really only allowed to go as far as their masters allow them - otherwise they’d be off the air in a New York minute.
I would take your comments a step further…..wouldn’t it be nice to have more than two candidates running for the office of President representing more than two identical parties? And, wouldnt it be nice if those running would stick to rational discourse - actual discussion of facts, ideas, detailed proposals, etc. - instead of all this gotcha’ crap about mostly stupid and insignificant.
Don’t keep telling me what I already know: we need good jobs, we need better education, we need helathcare for everyone, etc. We need real debate about the real issues between people with real brains and real heart. I doubt that will be happeneing in my lifetime either>>>>.
Exhibit A in how not to target women voters
Hi baby, what’s baaad girl like you doing in a good place like this?
What’s your sign?
This guy is as mentally challenged as Bush. He cannot process information, he cannot think with coherent logic. How can he be trailing Obama by only 8-points? Is America so threatened by an intelligent, erudite, thoughtful, Harvard-trained lawyer with a specialization in constitutional law that they would prefer to vote someone into the highest office who exhibits DAILY struggles on what the issues are, where he stands on those issues, and where he stands literally, as in: “Er, my friends, it’s nice to be with you in..(aside to Liebermann, etc.), er, what city are we in?”
He’s a phony. He’s unintelligent. He insults the intelligence of his public. He’s not a public servant. He’s a former flyboy wannbe hotshot arrogant servant to hi