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

[chronic]

Awkward?

How about TASTELESS!!!???

[partyofone]

Get real. We know what he was trying to say. Why waste time on something trivial. He misspoke. EVeryone does at some time.

[NickNas]

I would LOVE to hear from the PUMAS on this matter.

[Msohio]

That was a shocking statement from someone known to have an out of control temper. I keep scratching my head as to why Cindy would stay with the man. Especially with the negative comments that he has made to her in the presence of others. I still want to know the list of drugs that he is on, supplied by the VA and elsewhere. Also, is Cindy cured of her addiction?

[DCtrain]

McCain shouldn't talk anymore... the fruedian slips are coming out with regularity

[bookon]

Can someone explain how one could make a SMOOTH Wife Beating Joke?

[Buddy McCue]

Groucho Marx used to tell this joke on "You Bet Your Life." It was funny when he said it.

[chyko]

McCain has gotten away with a lot of gaff which if it was Obama, he would have been nailed or the Fox Network would be having a field day by recycling the the lop over and over again. This goes to tell you how much the some in the society would go in order to elect McCain and at the end, like George Bush, they would claim remourse after the damage has been done

[e2008usa]

McCain and Wife... the Entertainment of the 2008 Election..­. Nothing new !

[janedarcy]

Oh great...we have a choice between a man who makes wife beating jokes and a man who thinks it's OK for states to execute child rapists.

Gee, how shall I vote?

[Chuckwheat]

What's wrong with executing child rapists?

[Kaelinda]

If child rape were an executable crime, what would prevent ALL child rapists from murdering their victims? If they're going to be subject to the same penalty whether they rape him/her and let him/her live, or they rape him/her and kill him/her, why should they NOT kill them all? Do you think a rape victim would rather be dead than suffer the entire lifetime of emotional wreckage a rapist leaves behind?

[susanstudioz]

janedarcy, there is a reason to EXECUTE a criminal, CHILD Rape is THE reason! It's an awful CRIME! Jesus tells us, if we harm a child, it’d be better for the HARMER to put a lode stone around his neck & throw himself into the sea. Even Jesus advocates ridding ourselves of such BEASTS or have the Criminal rid US of HIMSELF. Have U noticed, "THEY" never do. They'll shout their “innocence” & BLAME the child! THE CHILD "led me on”! Just as sick a thought you can think. Molesters are known to be “UNCURABLE”. I do applaud ANY efforts at rehabilitation, yet most are hopeless. Not even CHEMICAL castration will keep them from their crimes. The ACT is not primarily "SEXUAL". In ALL RAPES, it’s the sick issues of POWER/CONTROL that motivates & whom better than a CHILD to USE? They are DRIVEN to seek children. It’s ALL terribly horrible. Haven't you read the literature on SEXUAL OFFENSES ? HOW assaults LAST FOREVER. When adults & elders, the "CHILD" STILL carries horrible scars until THEIR own deaths. There's a GIGANTIC list of symptoms & horrendous emotional/mental disabilities that result from this crime. One, is sometimes becoming a predator too, the cycle continues! I think it's GREAT Sen. Obama supports this bill. "They" just die a "clinical death" & aren't raped/mutilated first. Inform yourself & then say U STILL advocate "LIFE". We condone killing INNOCENTS in wars based upon LIES, then we should REMOVE the RIGHT to live after committing

[allseasons]

I think Cindy beats him in their several dungeons in their multiple houses. Leather and all.

[gtalkspolitics]

Maybe there is more to this story than beneath the eye didn't he call her a C*&#T? .

[bajaboy]

"then beneath the eye"? I think you want to say "than meets the eye". Makes a lot more sense, which is to say it actually DOES make sense.

[sustainable]

Nothing is going to make this guy happen. Its a joke that he is even in contention.

He is old and old people just aren't that flexible. Look at Mugabe, he is old and age has not ameliorated his behavior.

I don't think that McCain is any Mugabe, but if he is set on a course of action, it will be so much harder to reason with him.

[fishsandwichesr2good]

This just in. Obama said "I, I, I, I, I, um, really now, we should rise above the politics of personal, er, yes destruction, for the children and change we can, um, believe in, for the future. I'll leave it to my mud slinger surrogates to exploit this, er, um, I, I, am against, wife beating for the children and the future. We need new programs for wife beating prevention education for our children after school programs instead of tax cuts for the rich for change.

[Fotios]

And then McCain asked why that guy named internet keeps talking bad about him.

[fishsandwichesr2good]

Keep your day job.

[MemphisBuffalo]

Good way to attract the Clinton female supporters. I don't think Obama will joke about beating a woman.

[Big0725]

....or call his wife a c**t!

[LTinCali]

That would be because Obama has total respect for women. This was ingrained in him as a child and you can see it in the way he talks about his wife, looks at his wife and gushes over his daughters.

If that is not enough, how about the way he consistently honors Hillary Clinton even when she was fighting against him.

Clinton women need to take a long look at these two men and decide if they want someone who respects women and their issues or who panders to them just for the votes but then has a long history of disrespect both privately and publically against his wives.

[Drewkowski]

Don't you people GET IT?
He was trying to throw the "gotcha" back at the reporter.

He was alluding to the no-win answer were a reporter to ask the question "And how long ago did you stop beating your wife?" Implying that you beat your wife if you answer the question in ANY way.

I wouldn't vote for the guy if I was in the top 1%, but must give him a pass on this. This is TOTALLY due to people being ignorant of the cultural metaphor used for a corner/gotcha question from a reporter.

Get over it.

[Mike2008]

Truth is that McCain is very old hat. You cannot sit there and defend his repeated missteps and yesterday speak. He is old, and is from a generation where things that are no longer acceptable were at that time acceptable. He has lost his bearings, once again.

[Axolotl]

looked at another way, his bearings just need oil--lots of it.

[GayGrandpa]

Thanks Drew that seems like a fair and reasonable explanatio­n...still he is no role model as a "sweet and enduring" lover.

[impassionator]

I agree he was using it as a comeback - but really, the guy is running for President of the United States, not president of the local Chamber of Commerce. It is just not befitting of the office to repeat worn out locker room jokes like that make a lot of women uncomfortable. It does feed into the "good 'ole boy" idea that women should take whats coming to 'em, much like the McCain supporter Clayton Williams quip comparing rape and the weather as "...inevit­able..."

[susanstudioz]

Drewkowski, YOU gotta be a guy!

YOU don't GET IT.

The SUBJECT OF WIFE BEATING isn't "funny" anymore - especially coming from Temper-Tantrum OLD Man McCAIN . . .

YOU, Fella, GET ONTO IT . . .

[liberalsrheros]

i'll bet ralston was lauging too. ralston has a cable show in vegas and he is fun to watch.

[AdobePhsyko]

Is this the kind of Idiot you want making deals with foreign leaders about world security issues ?
He spends TOO much time with his foot in his mouth.

[jupitor]

Glad to meet you, and as the new leader of Russia have you beaten your wife lately? Now for you and I, the average joe, we could get away with such nonesense and jokes. But, Mccain is a Presidential Candidate, and he can't go around pissing off the ladys that he needs to vote for him and to win this election! This old man just doesn't know whats appropriate and what's not for a Presidential candidate to say! Everry week he sticks his foot in his mouth about one thing or another.