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

[NotWaldo]

McCain is not a complete-idiot, some parts are missing!

[Rog49Thomas]

Issues please.

[StarkRavingNakedEmperor]

I can just hear Nakini slithering around every time I look at this guy!

[StarkRavingNakedEmperor]

I meant Nagini--guess its getting late!

[ChefRikli]

I wonder if he uses Lieberman as another horcrux?

[Bettysdad]

I am so sick of the PC BS I see going on here.

People are either appallingly ignorant, or sensitive beyond comprehension.

I can't stand McCain,or anyone even vaguely right of pretty left, have voted Democratic since my first vote for McGovern in '72, but you guys are flat out wrong.

McCain was using the flip side of the most famous question used in every logic course, and law school:
"Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?"

It's a question with no good answer. It's a lose - lose situation.

If you look at the question McCain was being asked, either a "yes" or "no" answer would be a problem for him. So instead of saying "no comment" or something similar, he made a little joke about the old question that he, and I, assume everyone knows.

It was not a joke about wife beating. It was a joke about not being able to answer the question, and using the classic example.

There are a gazillion reasons to loathe John McCain. Real, serious reasons.

This isn't one of them.

[Mij13]

I didn't feel like explaining it. But you did it well. Thanks.

[1differentdrummer]

This is non-news.

[fnygy]

ditto ditto!

[eden4barack08]

"Some have found the subject of McCain's joke -- wife-beating -- inappropriate.

To be clear, McCain was alluding to the fictitious leading question "When did you stop beating your wife, senator?" It's a bit of distasteful DC yuckery so commonly quoted it's hackneyed.

But considering the subject McCain was discussing at the time, to allude to that joke was, well, .....awkward!"

WE GET IT Betty! But it's still in bad taste and consistent with McCain's gaffing habits!

[mshazen]

Just because its old doesn't make it right.

How about the joke stop altogether, A bit distatseful, really, no kidding.

If this were a joke refering to race it would have stoppped by now.

It shows how old and out of touch he is.

Obama would have been trashed by the media for days about this,

[mamacat]

You are right. However, a large part of the problem is with the headline used by the unattributed author of the piece. It makes Huffpo less credible to insult him because of his response to this question.

McCain's recent comments about the new GI Bill are more than enough to be disgusted with him.

[Yvaughn]

Agreed. If there were a different, famous catch-22 question like that, then he would probably have referenced IT. And I don't much like McCain either. But really....

[PAposter]

I know the question, and I get the joke, but it was still an inappropriate response. This is something guys say in the locker room, not on the Presidential campaign trail, to a reporter. BTW, it's only funny to men.

[mamacat]

Re: the reference to Pres. Carter. I guess McCain hasn't gotten the memo; Jimmy Carter is much, much more liked than Bush and the Republicans.

[MinneapolisBob]

The bottom line is, if Obama was white his lead over Grumpy McSame would be at least twice as much as it is now. The women who say they will vote for McSame over Obama because Hillary lost the nomination are not being honest as to why they will. It can't be their policies, as Obama and Clinton are virtually the same. McSame is anti-women's rights, children's health care and education, as well as other issues women have interest in. So what other reason can these women really have?
-------------------------------------
VOTE! Keep the Supreme Court out of the hands of the Neocons.

[whatsthatsound]

He's just, uh....too WEIRD to be president. This is his sense of humor: "bomb bomb Iran", "beating my wife"...always something dark and sinister there, like a Tim Burton movie.

[TheBrizz]

Stop disrespecting Tim Burton.

[FeloniouslyAnnoying]

agreed

[andvoodoo2]

Okay, I hate McCain and I think he's a moron and a dangerous person.
THAT SAID, there is an old example they cite in law school of when a line of questioning basically pins someone in a corner and they can't answer in a way that doesn't make themselves look bad. And, they use the question, "When did you stop beating your wife?" There is no way to answer the question without admitting you beat your wife. Get it? Every lawyer in the world has heard this question as an example of an impossible line of questioning to answer without making yourself look bad.

This story is silly. McCain is a moron. Next?

[Obama08Supporter]

This is one of the reasons I have been offline for a few weeks, I just can't deal with the crazy things that are happening in this election. I really think and beleive in my heart that the problem is that Obama is Black. This has been the most knit picking election I have seen in my 44 years. Maybe I only started paying attention this year or something, but this is the pits.

News reporting is nothing like it use to be, it is now worst than tabloids. I mean they can spin a story on a dog finding a shoe and make it look as if the shoe somehow bit the dog. It is terrible and it is worst now that our country is going down the drain. These reporters act as if this is a joke! When do we get to the real issues and get off this petty stuff?????

Only God knows!!

[andvoodoo2]

Maybe it's that reporting on the "real issues" is just too hard for today's reporters. In the old days, a reporter actually worked on and investigated a story. They took the time to fact check it, develop it and really write it. Today, reporters have a lot of competition. We live in the information age and people can get their news from television 24 hours a day, they can read a newspaper (which fewer and fewer do), they can listen to the radio and they can surf the web. The competition is greater for the reporter and the issue is complicated by the fact that the average American's attention span is getting shorter and shorter.
I know one thing, when we focus on silly stuff like this "story", it makes us look like we have nothing solid to criticize McCain for (and we all know we do). And, it insults the intelligence of the readers of this site to try to pass this off on us as newsworthy.

[jitterbug]

What about George Stepehapolus asking Barack Obama about "do you love your country more than ?" What kind ofd question was that? That was supposed to be a legitimate forum. Why didn't the MSM stick up for Obama? Why is the MSM so prejudiced FOR McCain? I just don't get it.

[andvoodoo2]

I don't know the exchange you are referencing. Tell me the whole exchange and I will be happy to respond.

[fair1234]

HILLARY VOTERS WE STAND UNITED IN VOTING FOR MCCAIN BECAUSE HE WANTS TO OVER TURN A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE!!!! YAAAAAAY

AND HE THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY AT A RALLY WHEN ONE OF HIS SUPPORTERS CALLS HILLARY A B&TCH!!! yAAAAAAYYYY!!!

MCCAIN HAS VOTED AGAINTS EVERY ISSUE THAT PERTAINS TO WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE MUST ELECT MCCAIN BECAUSE...........BECAUSE.........WE ARE JUST BITTER AND WANT TO COMMIT POLITICAL SUICIDE!!

AND THE BEST REASON TO VOTE FOR MCCAIN IS SO THAT OUR SOLDIERS CAN STAY IN A TRUMPED UP IRAQ WAR FOR 100 YEARS!!! WOW MCCAIN IS SUCH A MAVERICK!!!

SORRY FOR THE CAPS BUT I AM THROUGH!

[andvoodoo2]

Let the whole Clinton thing go. You aren't helping our cause.

[BENACEY]

ARE PEOPLE THIS DUMB!! HE WASNT ASK ANY QUESTION ABOUT WIFE BEATING PEOPLE.. HE WAS ASK ABOUT THE GOVERNORS APPROVAL RATINGS AND MCCAIN SAID "I STOP BEATING MY WIFE LAST WEEK" FIND THE TRANSCRIPT AND READ IT......I DID........ SHEEESH

(sorry for the caps, i thing my blood pressure rises a lttle)

[NTO08]

It's okay when anyone except Obama is taken out of context...I remember all the fools who said Reverend Wrong was taken out of context, and he proved to all that he believed every last one of the lunatic ideas he was caught spouting on film.

[chitown8]

Wright wasn't wrong. Look at his transcripts he quotes from books, I read them and I have the same conclusion.

[Rendon76]

Macho, macho man... I want to be, a macho man.

[schicklett3]

HIllary's Women are going to run right out and vote for this man out of spite - and they're going to look like complete idiots in doing so.
I still say McCain will drop out of the race before November.

[NTO08]

Hillary's Women...do you people practice sexism as a continuous art form?
You whine about Norquist and his comment about Obama and yet this kind of droll misogyny spills off your tongues with aplomb...nice.

[rosal]

I am from Nevada and the governor is a dissaster. Not only scandals with women, but the state if broke. He is cutting services right and left. As we all know, Repugs repeat a thousand times "no more taxes" and then they don't have funds for anything. And of course, the states or the country get into a mess. I can see why McGaffe wants to stay away from the guy.
By the way, is Fix News going to play McClone's statement on beating his wife 24/7?

[GuyFawkes]

And the Clinton women are supporting him because...?

[andvoodoo2]

Who says they are? If you people don't let this go and EMBRACE the females that backed Clinton, you are going to drive them away. Aren't we supposed to be united in this?
There are so many posters who keep bringing up Clinton, I am beginning to wonder if some of you aren't repug trolls trying to divide the Democratic Party.

LET IT GO!

[whatsthatsound]

I second that. Quit with the strawmen, (straw-women, I guess I should say) attacks already and get with the program. Stop figuring out who to blame for a loss that hasn't happened and seems unlikely to occur.

[BigMike75]

Hear, Hear! That is over with, and as uncomfortable as it has been for some to unite, we must.

[realtalk]

Well, John McCain doesn't seem to respect women at all, he called his wife a C*nt in front of campaign staff, and reporters. John McCain's made jokes about Hillary Clinton's daughter, calling her "ugly", saying that she is ugly because her father was Janet Reno.

And John McCain has even voted in the Senate against women being able to get equal wages as that of a man for equal work performed.

When explaining why he thinks women do not deserve equal pay, John McCain said that instead of equal pay what women need is more education, and training.

John Mccain is a chauvanist pig, his words, and actions prove it!!!

I wonder how John McCain would feel if someone at a fundraiser, did what he did and started talking about his daughters looks, and calling her ugly, infront of a room full of republican politicians.


John McCain is a disgrace!