McCain Plays the MILF Card -- Will it Work?

There has been plenty of commentary about what Governor Sarah Palin's hotness factor brings to the McCain-Palin ticket, but thus far the RNC has kept the dialogue on a professional level. Until it was discovered yesterday that the McCain campaign owns voteforthemilf.com. The URL was purchased via the McCain campaign's Go Daddy account. Furthermore, McCain's camp is not denying ownership at this point. Even more telling is that upon entering the URL, the site immediately redirects you to a personal video message from Gov. Palin on McCain's official website. A video posted to YouTube shows the redirect in case the campaign changes it, as seems likely.

McCain's campaign first tried this tactic, rather unsuccessfully, by pimping out his own wife Cindy. So it should not be surprising to discover that Palin's visceral appeal trumped her lack of experience in the eyes of the RNC.

GovGap.com highlights some interesting facts about this story including the fact that the McCain camp registered the URL within 36 hours of choosing Palin as a running mate. Since the story originally broke, there have been numerous updates posted to the site both tracking the electronic ownership trail -- it does trace back to McCain -- and proposing the theory that it was just the work of an underling commanded to buy up any domain name that might be used for or against the campaign. But voteforthemilf.com?? Cough, cough.

But the real question here besides legitimacy is will it work? We know that sex sells and sells well. Think of everything you know about Sarah Palin. Now think of everything you know about Joe Biden. Even regular readers of this site, most likely more politically astute than your average American, will recognize the media discrepancy. By christening Palin with the patently offensive and yet cyber-cool MILF tag, McCain makes his strategy clear. He's the brains, and she's the eye candy. And judging by recent poll numbers, his strategy might be working.

Quick, someone impregnate Biden!

Comments

[necer65]

Gross. The Republicans are guite desperate. Palin looks like a reject from the 80's.

[RedDogBear]

Speaking as someone who has built several commercial web sites I can tell you that registering a domain name doesn't mean much. It costs a few dollars and about 10 minutes time. Businesses, politicians, etc. do it all the time to snap up domain names that could be used to give misleading or unflattering information about them.

[Charlotte Hilton Andersen - Huffpost Blogger]

Indeed. But I don't see how "voteforth­emilf.com" would intuitively fit the "misleading or unflattering" scenario you present. It's too vague. If Palin's name were mentioned, then I might agree with you. Not to mention the redirect went immediately to a video of Palin speaking. The intent was pretty clear, IMO.

[PeterK2]

I'm totally with you here. Huge Obama fan, and love to hear all the well-deserved negative commentary about McCain/Palin. One thing I have a question about on this story... I did a WHOIS search, and find that the registered owner of this domain is private. I really want to believe that it was McCain's campaign and not some prankster who did this, but can you provide the proof that that is indeed the case?

I send this sort of thing to my (very few) GOP friends to help them "see the light," but if it isn't fact-checked, they will do it for me, and it will come back to bite me. Charlotte, can you help me out with a source here? Thanks! - Peter

[Charlotte Hilton Andersen - Huffpost Blogger]

Good point Peter. The owner wasn't hidden until the story went national yesterday. GovGap's got the original screen shots on their site. Did you click through to their site? Hope this helps!

[slg]

Well, she sure is pretty and it's only Dick Cheneys job we're talking about here. What harm could she possibly do?

[hopeless277]

Better start looking for CILFOUSA.com. I'm sure McCain has it registered also. Hint: the O is for over and the C is for Country.

[vim876]

Now it redirects to the Wikipedia page on the Domain Name System.

[Charlotte Hilton Andersen - Huffpost Blogger]

yeah, they changed the redirect. GovGap's got it all documented on their site if you click thru the link. Also, that was the point of making the youtube vid and posting it. We knew they were going to change it!

[Nahnmon]

Yah - redirected. Let's see if Stephanopoulos brings it up in - yeah right.

[MzTexas]

Sorry, but that URL takes you right to the Wikipedia page regarding domain names. Substituting www.voteforthemilf.com gives the same result. They must have taken it down.

[Charlotte Hilton Andersen - Huffpost Blogger]

MzTexas, Yes, they changed the redirect. See my reply above to Vim.