McCain's Birth Control Problem

How damaging is this video, now spreading around the web, showing John McCain squirming, stumbling, and then claiming ignorance about his position on providing women with birth control?

Apparently, very damaging. A Democratic Party strategist familiar with internal polling said McCain's two votes against requiring insurance companies to cover prescription birth control have been polled in battleground states and had tremendous resonance with women, including independents and Republicans.

(Polling conducted last month for NARAL Pro-Choice America showed similar data: 79 percent of pro-choice independent women and 61 percent of pro-choice Republican women said that McCain's votes against birth control access raised "serious doubts" in their minds about McCain.)

More troubling for the presumptive GOP nominee is that the video of his awkward exchange aboard the Straight Talk Express is getting wider attention from major media outlets (which apparently can't resist the Viagra angle).

Exhibit A: this piece exploring McCain's position that ran today on CNN:

Update: Here's more coverage from tonight's Countdown:

Comments

[loislane88]

05:09 PM on 07/11/2008

This needs to be posted anywhere and everywhere we can...webs­ites, blogs, etc...go for it!!!!

[kae]

04:44 PM on 07/11/2008

McCain's foreign policy experience is based on how many times he's flown to Iraq.

McCain's domestic policy experience is....he'l­l have to get back to us on that. Excellent.

[walkthewalk]

03:46 PM on 07/11/2008

Haven't we had enough embarrassm­ent from our current President? Do we want another four years of this?

It's interestin­g that "straight-­talking" McCain can't give an opinion on whether birth control pills should be covered by insurance because he says he doesn't remember his vote on the issue. Busted. As it happens, he voted against women. I guess I'd try to forget that fact too if I were running for President. Clearly this issue is much too complex for him to give a quick response. Ask him about going to war again in the middle east, however, and he'll break out singing, "Bomb bomb bomb Iran."

How do you think McCain would do answering the phone at 3 am? Do you really want to find out?

[kizzie]

03:24 PM on 07/11/2008

I have never understood why birth control pills were not covered by insurance since so many do not approve of abortion. BC would prevent alot of this.
Yet, when Viagra hit the scene, it was immediatel­y accepted and covered by insurance.
This MENtality says it in a NUT-shell MEN are more important than women.( IN their minds only). It's more important for them to be able to get stiff and procreate than it is to keep a woman from having to make such a soulsearch­ing decision on whether she can accept the responsibi­lities that pregnancy can bring.
It doesn't matter that alot of the men needing Viagra brought on their problem form abuses of alchohol and drugs, or just the natural process of aging. Women go through menopause and many things change in their lives, too, yet we get pushed aside so men can go play. If men want to go play, let them pay for it. People never cease to amaze me.

[Strain]

08:17 PM on 07/11/2008

There are many factors to figure in the failure to get and/or keep an erection. Over work, depression­, undectecte­d diseases and even cancer.
But on the whole, I total agree with you. Damn funny to me that we females have no say so over our own bodies. I still have a sign that I got during a convention in Tucson hosted by the feminist movement. It reads "Keep your laws off my body!"

[rasthedestroyer]

03:06 PM on 07/11/2008

Looked like a deer in the headlights

[rasthedestroyer]

02:29 PM on 07/11/2008

UH OH!!! Somebody made a boo boo. If you don't know by now, you will never, never know.

[whiteboyblues]

01:59 PM on 07/11/2008

That was painful to watch

[BatedBreath]

03:16 PM on 07/11/2008

It was, indeed. He doesn't think very fast on this feet, does, he?

[solen]

10:07 PM on 07/11/2008

Should be interestin­g when he has to debate Obama...

[RedEyes]

01:58 PM on 07/11/2008

Seriously, we should force ALL women to get on birth control, and then we can set up a government agency to decide who is allowed to procreate. Let's get progressiv­e!

[OriginalScreenName]

03:04 PM on 07/11/2008

Seriously, we should force ALL woman to be nothing but baby factories so we can out-breed our enemies! Let's get conservati­ve!

[BatedBreath]

03:15 PM on 07/11/2008

redeyes, are you deliberate­ly obtuse or were you born that way? The issue is having insurance companies pay for birth control for the women who *want* it.

[GHENT007]

01:05 PM on 07/11/2008

HE LOOKS LIKE HE'S ABOUT TO GIVE BIRTH!!!!

[jupitor]

01:18 PM on 07/11/2008

Does he ever listen, or read what he signs! He never seems to know what he voted for or against unless it's war!

[LAB11]

12:42 PM on 07/11/2008

A vote for McBush is a vote for the erosion of women's rights.

[Strain]

08:18 PM on 07/11/2008

Amen.

[GuyFawkes]

12:29 PM on 07/11/2008

Deer in the headlights is not a good look for a commander in chief. The thousand mile stare of Bush and the Pet Goat on 9/11.

He just looks lost and confused.

[KitChandler]

03:23 PM on 07/11/2008

He doesn't look confused to me. He looks like he wants to tell the reporter to get the f%&k out of his face. I can see that this man really has a behavior control problem and was struggling not to let his contempt for being put in that position overtake his explosive nature.

[rh654]

12:22 PM on 07/11/2008

I did not like Carly as a CEO at HP - she lead to a lot of real bad decisions.

But - I love Carly for her bringing up the question of Birth Control vs Viagra coverage!

It really is staggering that she is supporting a candidate that:

1) Voted against requiring Birth Control being covered by the same companies that cover Viagra.

2) Doesn't even understand the issue.

3) Does not have the guts to tell us that he does no support requiring companies that cover Viagra to cover the Pill also.

Carly did more to exploit this problem for McCain than Obama's backers ever could have!

[JoshuasGrandma]

04:11 PM on 07/11/2008

McCain also had a problem rememberin­g whether he had a position on use of condoms for AIDS prevention -(Sept 2007)

[leftoflennon]

12:06 PM on 07/11/2008

THIS is the deathnell of his campaign!

[k6007]

12:26 PM on 07/11/2008

Don't be too sure of that.....r­emember bushbaby's revealing performanc­e. during the 04 debates??
Who would've thought THAT many people would STILL vote for him?

[leftoflennon]

01:53 PM on 07/11/2008

Yeh, but America wasnt in the shittube it is now.

[Herekitty]

03:05 PM on 07/11/2008

I doubt that the Black Baby smear really made a difference in the out come.
The FIX was already in!

[JamesInDenver]

11:57 AM on 07/11/2008

I use to think McCain's problem was old age. I know think it is simply low intelligen­ce. Let's not put another dope in the White House.

[JoshuasGrandma]

04:15 PM on 07/11/2008

I rather have a young smart guy with less experience and willingnes­s to get help from competent experts than an old 'bottom of the class' guy with so-called experience­, because it looks very much like the old guy is not able to learn from any experience­!

[NotWaldo]

11:46 AM on 07/11/2008

It's now called the "DisOrient­edExpress!­"

[Herekitty]

03:07 PM on 07/11/2008

Disoriente­d because he is the Manchurian Candidate!