In a candid moment that John McCain most certainly does not want to go public, several journalists on his Straight Talk Air overheard the Republican presidential candidate telling campaign manager Steve Schmidt that American voters are, "Just a bunch of stupid idiots."
Shocked reporters immediately began scribbling down the detrimental words, as Schmidt at first sought to downplay the exchange as a "misunderstanding," and then later, "just a joke." Reporters continually pressed Schmidt to clarify the remarks by McCain, who angrily stalked to the back of the plane and remained there, perhaps hoping the gaffe could be explained away by the architect of his floundering campaign.
Pundits speculate this could be far worse than Obama's notorious comments at a San Francisco fund-raiser where he said that some rural voters who were frustrated by years of economic hardship were often "bitter," and may "cling to guns and religion." Like that ill-advised sentiment, McCain's slip of the tongue was off-the-record, but not out of earshot.
Pushed to explain exactly how McCain was joking, Schmidt became visibly agitated, saying "The liberal elite media is only interested in playing gotcha games. There are legitimate issues out there that the American people want to discuss, uh, like Barack Obama's association with Bill Ayers, and you know, is he a terrorist, a socialist, a communist, or what? These are the burning issues of the day and uh, also, the sexism against Governor Palin." He continued, "I mean, that's important, as we all remember the 'lipstick on a pig' comment. Let's not forget that John McCain is a P.O.W. war hero and a maverick, and he suspended his campaign to fix our economic crisis in a completely selfless, heroic action. Then there's Joe the Plumber, uh, also an American hero, and someone who is clearly from one of the Pro-America parts of the country and these people, the real Americans -- they know socialist, terrorist policies when they see them."
When reporters asked Schmidt if he thought this verbal slip would hurt the campaign, his face turned a shade of crimson, and through clenched teeth, he muttered a simple "No." As for the candidate himself, he has not yet commented on the brewing controversy, but chances are he's severely regretting this latest misstep.
Someday in the very near future, the electorate will look back on both of these campaigns, and see that they were run in very different ways. One treated the people as adults; offering calm, rational thought interspersed with hope, a pragmatic passion for fairness and a new course of action. The other offered worn-out ideas, a shoddy, schizophrenic sense of strategy, and trafficked in some of the most contemptible fear-mongering, knuckle-dragging tactics seen in modern-day politics.
No, McCain didn't actually say he thought voters were stupid idiots, but with the campaign he's let Schmidt run, he didn't really have to.