McCain Makes Awkward Wife-Beating Joke

In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, columnist Jon Ralston asked McCain why he didn't choose Gov. Jim Gibbons (in the middle of a messy divorce) to chair his Nevada campaign:

McCain: I appreciate his support. As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman.

Q: Why snub the governor?

McCain: I didn't mean to snub him. I've known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we've been good friends....I didn't intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman.

Q: Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?

McCain: (Chuckling) And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago . . .

ABC News' Jake Tapper notes that McCain's evasive joke was a poor choice given the context:

Gov. Gibbons last month filed for divorce from his wife Dawn citing incompatibility.

It's pretty scandalous. The Reno Gazette-Journal recently reported
that one month Gibbons sent 860 text messages to a woman with whom Mrs. Gibbons suspects her husband of stepping out.

Gibbons, you may recall, started his governorship amidst accusations that he assaulted a cocktail waitress named Chrissy Mazzeo three weeks before Election Day. Mazzeo said Gibbons grabbed her in a parking garage and threatened to sexually assault her. Charges were never filed.

Later in the same interview, McCain calls Jimmy Carter "a lousy president."

Read more of the interview here.

Comments

[Bettysdad]

01:57 AM on 06/30/2008

If McCain was making a joke, what was it the punchline to?

Where's the set-up.

You PC clowns don't have a clue about reality.

[Glacial]

01:13 AM on 06/30/2008

Awkward, but come on. He's pointing out that he was just asked the same sort of question as the old example of the trick question, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

Poor McCain can't seem to keep his foot out of his mouth...

[gladys46]

12:03 AM on 06/30/2008

McCain, awkward .. no way!!!

[Anonani]

10:36 PM on 06/29/2008

It is high time that we had a President whose bloopers are infrequent and whom we can be sure that he is respected in the world community as a clear thinker and capable of eloquently articulating even humor.

This is just sad.

[LittleBrother]

01:38 PM on 06/29/2008

McCain Makes Awkward Wife-Beating Joke
_________________________________________

There's simply no excuse for a presidential candidate making an awkward wife-beating joke.

Remember, while in the Oval Office, the president will be joking with heads of state and dignitaries from every nation!

We the People insist on a president who makes GLIB and FUNNY wife-beating jokes! We should settle for no less.

[AryanMjolnir]

11:04 AM on 06/29/2008

I wouldn't be surprised if Cindy McCain is the victim of some kind of abuse.

[cellopaddy]

10:18 AM on 06/29/2008

what? I don't even get the joke, maybe he's not joking . . .

[Catseyes]

09:38 AM on 06/29/2008

I think McCain is actually Bush's real father. They are so alike.

[Okieborn]

09:45 AM on 06/29/2008

No way !! Unless Mccain was 10 yrs. Old although with this bunch of TRASH who knows LOL !!!

[WhimseyKate]

11:37 AM on 06/29/2008

Yes, they both make reckless, tasteless , ego-driven remarks. After McCain called his wife a c*** and has had, literally, to shut down questions from reporters and event attendees about that, you'd think he'd learn. But this is the same man who "joked" with "Bomb, bomb Iran." Is there something funny about dropping bombs on human beings that I'm missing? This man has a dangerous temper, and it leaks out in his off the cuff comments. In linguistics, there's "surface language", the actual words and then there's the deep structure - the real, some might say, the "Freudian" meaning that those words convey. We need to listen carefully to what this man and his surrogates say. Rove refers to Obama as 'arrogant' (read "not one of us"); Norquist refers to Obama as "Kerry with a tan". What the deep structure is telling us is that these people - McCain and those with whom he surrounds himself- are telling us that only privileged white guys in the republican party are allowed to lead this country. Yeah, that's worked out so well since 2000.

[SEQUOIABISON]

08:17 AM on 06/29/2008

There is absolutely nothing that I like about McCain especially his wholehearted support for Bushs war in Iraq, but this type of headline is misleading and downright silly, lets go after him on the real issues not with phoney headlines.

[08politicaljunkie]

08:03 AM on 06/29/2008

I contend, he really should give up his political aspiration and pursue a career in comedy. That seems to be his real passion. If you're fortunate enough to reach the age of 72 and still enjoy reasonable physical health, I say forget your father's, grandfather's, and father-in-law's legacy and fulfill your own dream!

Late Night with John McCain!

Sounds good, doesn't it?

[partyofone]

05:54 AM on 06/29/2008

What exactly is the story here? Everyone knows that the classic example of a trap quesiton from a report is "Are you still beating your wife?". Either "yes" or "no" suggests that the person answering has in fact beat his wife. McCain was simply saying "you want to trap me into saying something I am not going to say."

There are so many big issues facing the nation, and so many legitimate things to question both McCain and Obama about. Why this type of costant picking up of single sentences or phrases and trying to create a controversy?

McCain phrased something innocent awarkwardly. Move on.

[Darnamell]

01:56 PM on 06/29/2008

For those who don't live in Vegas, Jon Ralston is pretty even about getting to the point. He's not a sensationalist reporter and hits all sides of the political spectrum as directly and fairly.

His question here was basically "why do you avoid our governor, who aside from having huge political problems, is also in the midst of a messy divorce?" It isn't a "gotcha" question and did not have anything to do with wife beating. It is a request for some honesty from Mr. Straight Talk about who he's avoiding the one western governor he hasn't tried to curry favor with.

Instead we get a wife beating joke. Out of nowhere. It wasn't a trap, given the source and source material (i.e. we aren't inundated with stories that Jim beat on Dawn; he just cheated on her...a lot).

You may call wife beating "awkward". I dare you to try explaining yourself in such a manner to the women in your life.

[Bettysdad]

05:57 PM on 06/29/2008

You're attempt to prove your PC credentials has turned you into a liar.

Don't post what the question "basically" was. post the exact quote. Which is:
"Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?"

It is exactly a "gotcha" question, and all your BS analysis is just that.

There a billions of reasons why McCain is loathsome. This isn't one of them.

[Bettysdad]

05:36 AM on 06/29/2008

I have absolutely no doubt the PC monitors, here and at large in the country, are going to be the death of the progressive movement.

Nobody likes a bunch of scared little rabbits that are terrified by words. Nobody has any respect for people that tell other people how to talk, but don't stand for too much else.

Real feminists don't worry about this kind of crap. I know because I've lived with a world-class feminist for 24 years, and she thinks you're laughable.

Once again, I'll explain.

McCain was flipping the time-honored question used in logic courses and law schools "yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife."

DO YOU UNDERSTAND!

He could have said "why don't you ask me if I've stopped beating my wife?"

Why don't you stop LOOKING for reasons to be offended, and get a life.

[Darnamell]

01:58 PM on 06/29/2008

And while I get your point, PC or not, isn't it long since time we've moved past that being an okay statement to make?

Just another sign that McCain won't be doing anything to move our nation forward. Wife beating, in ANY context, just isn't a joke.

Tool.

[Bettysdad]

06:04 PM on 06/29/2008

IT'S NOT A JOKE!

How many times do you people have to be told?

If you were in law school, and a teacher used this as an example of a perfect, unanswerable question, are you such a loser. you'd complain to the dean?

You probably would, because your incredibly thin skin just got touched a little. Do you dare go out in public? Chances are you'll hear something upsetting. Not upsetting t normal people, just upsetting to you.

The reason it's such an unanswerable question is because NO ONE WANTS TO BE THOUGHT OF AS A WIFE BEATER!

DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

[Southrnbelle]

02:21 AM on 06/29/2008

Republicans - This is the best they could come up with?

[orangepetal]

01:57 AM on 06/29/2008

I never dreamt that I would vote for a republican.
Could not even watc their debates.
Remember the c**t and the GI bill and the Equal Pay Bill.
Now he suddenly has all these virtues.
I know, troll, racist, bitter. sad, heard it all,
Actually Obama offended me real bad many times and he has not said he is sorry or done anything to rectify the situation.
PUMA

[LTinCali]

02:15 AM on 06/29/2008

Offended you how?

[storeyy]

04:02 AM on 06/29/2008

LT...don't waste your time trying to rationalize with those HRC fanatics or Operation Chaos operatives I never know what they are calling themselves from one day to the next. When I was in DC I met 3 Hillraisers....2 were actually republicans who said they only crossed over to vote HRC because she was a woman and now will cross back to vote John Songbird McCain. .Don't concern yourself with these PUMA's....I would guess all 5 of them are repukes...

[Bettysdad]

05:38 AM on 06/29/2008

He has nothing to be sorry about or rectify.

Your girl does.

You're not going to convince a single person of your ridiculous position, so go get a life.

[wmbear]

01:17 AM on 06/29/2008

IN FAIRNESS TO MCCAIN...

(Although it pains me to be fair to a man who is not himself fair), what McCain was referencing was the standard trope in logic that has to do with implicit presuppositions in questions. The question, "Have you stopped beating your wife?" used to (back in the day) frequently used as an example of this kind of presupposition. (You were, at some point, beating your wife.) What McCain evidently MEANT was that the questioner's question contained an implied presupposition, namely that McCain was running away from President Bush.

Now, anybody who can pour urine from a boot would avoid that particular reference and find some other way of expressing the same thought. However, my point stands. McCain was NOT making a "joke" about wife-beating, merely exercising poor taste in his choice of an example of a question containing an implicit presupposition....

(Whew -- study philosophy, people, so I don't have to keep explaining this kind of thing!)

[wmbear]

01:48 AM on 06/29/2008

SPECIFICALLY, A YES OR NO QUESTION...

With an implied presupposition. Because such questions cannot be answered either in the affirmative or in the negative without affirming the presupposition, they are often used in a legal context to "trap" witnesses into supposedly acknowledging something a lawyer wants them to acknowledge. (Needless to say, media types also often use them in interviews out of similar ulterior motives....)

[Bettysdad]

05:40 AM on 06/29/2008

I've tried, but I can't think of another question.

I suppose you could use another noun like "dog" or "toaster."

But rather than change hundreds of years of usage, why don't all the PC loons grow up.