Posted on 06/27/2008 3:15:21 PM PDT by HABIFF33
McCain Gambles with Awkward Joke
June 27, 2008 7:38 AM
In an interview with the Las Vegas Sun, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was asked by columnist Jon Ralston why he didn't choose Gov. Jim Gibbons to chair his Nevada campaign.
"I appreciate his support," McCain said. "As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman."
Why snub the governor? Ralston asked.
"I didn’t mean to snub him,. I've known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we've been good friends," McCain said. "I didn't intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman."
Maybe it's the governor's approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president? Asked Ralston in a question McCain clearly found loaded.
Said McCain, chuckling, "And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago."
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!
Gov. Gibbons last month filed for divorce from his wife Dawn citing incompatiblity.
It's pretty scandalous. The Reno Gazette-Journal recently reported that one month Gibbons sent 860 text messages to a woman with whome 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.
Might want to scratch that joke from the schtick, senator, especially in Nevada.
I have a whole host of battered women jokes, but they aren’t as funny as battered troll jokes. Welcome to FR.
McCain's no Reagan, Bush or for that matter Ford.
Can't his handlers rope him in?
I despise McCain. But ‘despise’ is not a strong enough term for how I feel about the mainstream rat sh*t news media.
That’s the best that the libtards in the lsm can come up with??
Sheesh!
Bambi makes gaffe after gaffe and the MSM looks the other way. In fact, if bambi had made the same joke only the conservative blogs would have picked it up.
Indeed.
If one is going to whine and play at moral outrage over Mad Jon McCain, a lame attempt to point out the use of verbal judo to point out the question had no answer is billy goat and troll under the bridge stuff..
Talk about taking a stretch to make a point!
This is news?
MCain was going to eat his entrails. And the DU was Sound...
Without any supporting evidence, I’m pretty sure I know which spouse does all the beating in the Obama household.
Speaking of jokes, this little article is one.
The reporter uses that old stand-by “Some have said...” method of injecting opinion into a purported factual story: “Some have found the subject of McCain’s joke — wife-beating — inappropriate.”
I have to give the author, Jake Tapper, a bit of a break, though ... since he has been almost alone in the MSM in taking a hard look at Obama’s background and associations.
Its a Washington Insider joke. Its a foolish joke. Its a joke about a matter that is not a joke. What a joke! LOL!
This morning MSNBC cut to his town hall meeting and for some odd reason, stayed on it for a while. I guess they were trying to be fair and balanced because of the soft-core show put on by Hillobama in Unity.
Either way, it was ONE OF THE BEST SPEECHES/TALK that I have ever heard.
He laid out his PRO-GROWTH agenda beautifully. Gave detailed examples and connected the dots.
For example the current electric cars cost 100K but very next generation would cost 60K. He pointed out that Cell Phones used to cost 1000 dollars when they started out and now they are giving it to us for free. Combine that with Nuclear Energy which is tremendously cheap you have pretty descent solution for transportation.
He also DEFENDED his idea of giving awards and MOCKED Obambi for calling it another gimmick.
He relayed the fact that Charles Lindberg was awarded 25K to fly across Atlantic.
He was also INSPIRING and RE-ASSURING.
Too bad that auto-plant workers like ghosts and corpses. Not even one smile. Not even one applause, even though McCain was sharp and delivered plenty of applause lines. Its almost as if the workers were forced to be there. If anything, some of the facial expressions can be interpreted as mocking.
Having said that, its a SHAME that ONLY thing people would hear from that townhall is WIFE BEATING JOKE.
It would be presented to Hildabeast lovers as joking about something as heinous as wife-beating and not the fact he was mocking how the QUESTION WERE LOADED.
It sure is a stumble. A horrible one at that. Most women are not capable of getting the humor he was attempting.
McCain's answer might have been better phrased as the alluded-to question itself "And when did you stop beating your wife, Sir?" but even phrased as an "answer" the allusion should have been obvious to any reasonable person.
Basically, what happened is the reporter got annoyed because McCain wouldn't play his little verbal game. Somehow that's news.
See, www.clintons4mccain.com
Actually it is a loaded question, it is not a joke.
The title you created didn’t match the title at the source and had to be changed. We’re trying to reduce the number of pulled threads. Please don’t alter titles of any published material. Just copy and paste the title found above the article. Thanks.
Welcome to FR, Brother.
The rhetorical question "And when did you stop beating your wife, Sir?" has entered the lexicon as an almost-stock reply to a leading question. While the response is normally given in the form of a question, I don't see why answering the implied question would be regarded as a "joke".
One of the few things (well, actually the only thing) I like about McCain is his dry sense of humor. He’s kind of like Bill Murray’s father.
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