McCain "Bitch" Video Sparks War Between McCain Campaign And CNN
Okay, this is fun. The video we posted yesterday of a McCain supporter calling Hillary a "bitch" has now sparked a full-fledged war between the McCain campaign and CNN.
And amusingly, the McCain campaign is now actually sending out the video to its supporters as a way of drumming up support.
Let me explain.
Yesterday evening, CNN's Rick Sanchez did a spot on McCain's appearance at the event. When a supporter asked, "how do we beat the bitch," McCain laughed, and a bit later answered: "That's an excellent question." CNN's Sanchez took McCain sharply to task for this on his spot, and CNN flashed on its screen the following:
"An Excellent Question?"John McCain and the B-Word
Now McCain's campaign is trying to turn this to its advantage -- by opening fire on the network and portraying it as both a Hillary ally and a liberal media foil to McCain. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has just blasted out an email to supporters demanding that CNN apologize to the Arizona Senator for smearing him.
From the email:
The CNN Network, affectionately known as the Clinton News Network, has stooped to an all-time low and is gratuitously attacking John McCain for not defending Hillary Clinton enough when a South Carolina voter used the 'B' word to describe her when John McCain stopped into a luncheon yesterday at the Trinity restaurant in Hilton Head, SC.A voter used a word that I would not have used to describe Senator Hillary Clinton and asked the Senator how he was going to beat her. Senator McCain first responded by saying that he respected Senator Clinton, as he has said repeatedly throughout the campaign....
As an independent news agency, CNN owes John McCain an apology because of the outrageous behavior of their network host Rich Sanchez...Senator McCain is a fighter and he is not going to back down to CNN.
Best of all, the McCain email then suggests CNN ran the story because it's in cahoots with Hillary and because CNN knows that "John McCain is the only Republican who beats Hillary Clinton in recent national polling data and who will beat her in the general election."
The McCain campaign's email also includes our video for supporters to watch.
The reason this is interesting is that McCain is trying to accomplish two things here: He's calling attention to the video because he thinks it will appeal to wingnuts who will like the fact that McCain's supporter called Hillary a "bitch" and that he didn't condemn this. But that's not all. He's also doubling down by lumping CNN and Hillary together and suggesting that they're conspiring to bring him down, because he's the only one who can beat Hillary.
Fun times.
Late Update: Atrios has a great catch on the rather mindless reaction of one pundit to all this.
Comments (40)
Michael wrote on November 14, 2007 2:12 PM:cnn has a liberal media bias???? Too funny. I thought cnn was a subsidiary of fox entertainment.
LJ wrote on November 14, 2007 2:22 PM:My favorite paragraph from the McCain e-mail in which he tries to use the Iraq War for political gain while also disdainfully accusing the media of using the Iraq War for political gain:
John McCain displayed leadership on Iraq when others were silent. He was the only candidate who criticized the Rumsfeld strategy and argued for a new strategy in Iraq - a strategy that is now succeeding. The liberal media knows that if John McCain is nominated they can no longer try to use the War in Iraq for political gain.
Funny.
Ethan wrote on November 14, 2007 2:33 PM:Omfg. Ouch. Brain. Hurts.
brook wrote on November 14, 2007 2:34 PM:Gee, anyone else think it may have been a planted question?
spowell71 wrote on November 14, 2007 2:35 PM:I used to love John McCain back in 2000 but hee has become low class. I thought his military service made him an officer and a gentleman? I wonder if he would laugh if his mother, sister, wife, or daughter were called a bitch. I am sure
his groupie Chris Mathews will be defending him Hardball.
The grammar on this sentence suggests to me that the McCain campaign is hiring the illiterate as press flacks:
"The liberal media has figured out that John McCain is the only thing that stands between a Hillary Clinton presidency, and they are therefore trying to stop the McCain comeback."
Sheesh.
hnc wrote on November 14, 2007 2:42 PM:Great question to McCain
and an apt description of her Royal Highness
Time for Hillary to start calling McCain, "that old shell-shocked fcuker"
whidbeygrl wrote on November 14, 2007 2:54 PM:The *B* word actually stands for:
Broad
In
Total
Control (of)
Herself
I used to run a DUI school, facing a roomful of very resentful sullen guys.
First session I always wrote the B word on the board, explained the above definition, and never had any problems with the guys after that.
hnc wrote:
Great question to McCain
and an apt description of her Royal Highness
hnc:
Are you as bigoted as you are sexist?
If one of McCain's supporters uses the n-word to describe Obama, would that be a great question and an apt description of Obama? And if McCain refused to correct the questioner and call her out for her bigotry, what would you conclude about McCain then? Hmmmn?
BernieO wrote on November 14, 2007 3:11 PM:Maybe McCain has been getting advice from ol "Bar" Bush. Remember when she called Geraldine Ferraro the b-word (she actually said witch, but with a b)? Republicans are such class acts.
LiberalTarian wrote on November 14, 2007 3:11 PM:Hm. The feces flinging has begun. I thought the chimp would be gone in 2008? Sadly, apparently not.
Brendan wrote on November 14, 2007 3:14 PM:I enjoy this run-on sentence. I guess when McCain purged his staff this summer, he included the copy editor.
"The CNN Network, affectionately known as the Clinton News Network, has stooped to an all-time low and is gratuitously attacking John McCain for not defending Hillary Clinton enough when a South Carolina voter used the 'B' word to describe her when John McCain stopped into a luncheon yesterday at the Trinity restaurant in Hilton Head, SC."
The only knocks on Hillary are that she's ambitious and hedges her answers. Every politician is ambitious and hedges his answers.
The Liberal Democratic party of the United States wrote on November 14, 2007 3:17 PM:I have started a new political party called the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States. You can read the web page at http://www.dmocrats.org and you will find that this party works differently from other political parties. Take a look and help enact progressive legislation and end the war where you work as a legislator and you vote on legislation.
The Liberal Democratic Party of the United States wrote on November 14, 2007 3:20 PM:As a Liberal Democrat, I would not call Hillary a bitch, I would call her a corporatiste.
I find it amusing how Republiklan party members don't ever consider voting for Hillary. As a Liberal Democrat I will not vote for Hillary either as she appears too conservative and will function like a corporate windsock.
Paul Hertz wrote on November 14, 2007 3:28 PM:Note that McCain says "I respect anyone who gets the nomination of the Democrat party," not the Democratic Party. (Atrios's transcript missed this, but it's clear in the video). This petty taunt has become standard fare for Republicans, and indicates just how hypocritical talk of respect is.
gavin immerson wrote on November 14, 2007 4:02 PM:Poor J.McC. is flotsom in the swirl, looking for anything that still floats.
Best part of Sanchez's piece was Whoopie nailing Amy's smiling, constantly lying, smug little puss, eh?
This incident is very tittilating !
Is it not wondeful how it distracts even thinking people from the extremely serious issues on which we need to focus ?
Look forward to a year of steeply descending tone: there will be more name-calling, then crotch-grabbing, bosoms overexposed, salacious rumors of naughty sex and piles of cash ... ooh !
Bimbo 'reporters' with sky-high hair and potty mouth ... bad words on national TV ...
This is while the ripping-up of the constitution proceeds at full speed.
It should be making you ill.
Michael wrote on November 14, 2007 4:18 PM:The question of the day is how much is the clinton II campaign paying mccain to help her win the nomination? I wonder. Talk about free advertising and throwing red meat to the clinton II-lovers and the republican base. McCain gets a twofer.
LJ wrote on November 14, 2007 4:30 PM:Yep. This has pretty much replaced the "tip" story and the "planted question" story. The Clinton camp has to be pretty happy about it. Hopefully Thursday night's debate will get us talking about real issues again, if only briefly.
Michael wrote on November 14, 2007 4:37 PM:you know, maybe the woman who asked the question was a clinton II plant to divert the story lines from the planted questions and tip stories. I could see the clinton II campaign doing that.
Also, don't expect any issue discussions if clinton II has anything to do with it. She would rather be talking about republicans calling her a b*tch, as opposed to addressing any issues.
MizLiz wrote on November 14, 2007 4:37 PM:Come to think of it, the woman who asked that "question" sounded completely phony. Another planted question? Where does all this nonsense stop?
blake wrote on November 14, 2007 4:38 PM:excellent point, LJ.
DonnaG wrote on November 14, 2007 6:02 PM:There is nothing more awful or polarizing that a couple who enjoys fighting in public, drawing embarrassed or neutral others into their narcissistic orbit. That is how I see this whole business of someone referring to Hillary as a bit**, which is the other side of the coin of Hillary considering 'the Republicans' as worthy only of being 'beaten'.
Whomever slings whatever ugliness, either side of the 'couple' loves a new salvo to draw folks into more of the same old stuff. The outcome is that we, the public, are supposed to sit up and pay attention and cluck 'ain't it awfuls' to a fresh renewal of the old games between the Clintons and the Republicans......
Aren't there now at least three posts at EC on this topic, abetting the 'ain't it awful' chorus for polarization? Imagine four or more years of this level of interaction continuing the exhausting patterns of divisiveness in America.
Canaan wrote on November 14, 2007 6:22 PM:This is the most news coverage McCain has had in months. Ditto for Edwards and Obama. The only way these guys get their names in the paper is to mention Hillary.
Anyway, I guess we can't go around calling Geraldine Ferraro nutty anymore.
votenic wrote on November 14, 2007 7:00 PM: 2008 Presidential Election Weekly Pollhttp://www.votenic.com
Results Posted Every Tuesday Evening. Sporty wrote on November 14, 2007 7:05 PM:
Why is it that every one of the republicans are defended even by "NANCY PELOSI": publically and even censors them, when a democrats or anyone happens to tells the truth about Bush, the republicans or his water carriers in the service.
Yet, if someone even mentions something about a republicans statement or actions, they are fined, jailed and threaten by all republican which chooses to.
Bush and republicans are taken his illegal decider's authority too d... far.
Pathetic John. Pity to see a once great man descend to the kind of bullshit he has to dish out to be in this race. This man needs out pity.
brian wrote on November 14, 2007 7:50 PM:
Something phony-smelling about that little 'dialogue' in this comments section ... those five posts were all posted by the same shill - I would bet money.
The lady who asked the question of McCain will be identified soon. She will not turn out to be a 'plant'.
She is almost certainly a true believer in the Republican cause.
CalD wrote on November 14, 2007 8:27 PM:OT, but watching that video it struck me that McCain may have a tumor in his left parotid gland. I could be wrong but I'd guess that's why he looks like he's carrying an Acorn in his cheek. Big sucker too; possibly inoperable without some risk of facial paralysis, since the main facial nerve runs right through it.
abdul rehmanshaikh wrote on November 14, 2007 10:21 PM:JOHN MC CANN IS THE IS THE BIGGEST LIAR OF ALL TIME .I KNOW HOW HE PORTRAYS HIMSELF AFIGHTER HE WAS UNDER SURROUNDING OF U.S. ARMY AND WAS LYING ABOUT SITUATION IN IRAO SHAME ON HIM.
Lumpy wrote on November 14, 2007 10:42 PM:McCain is a moron, no doubt about it. Now he's put his foot in it...for about the 312th time this season!
stacygs wrote on November 14, 2007 10:46 PM:This is the liberal CNN that hired Glenn Beck? Please, CNN has become nothing more than Fox Lite.
And John McCain has no principles. He will do whatever it takes for power, such as kowtowing to Bush even after the dirty tricks Bush and Rove pulled on him. Or trying to gain political points from this video.
Yuck.
mitzi wrote on November 14, 2007 11:16 PM:if the name fits.........
I B Joshin wrote on November 15, 2007 1:10 AM:CalD wrote on November 14, 2007 8:27 PM:
"OT, but watching that video it struck me that McCain may have a tumor in his left parotid gland. I could be wrong but I'd guess that's why he looks like he's carrying an Acorn in his cheek. Big sucker too; possibly inoperable without some risk of facial paralysis, since the main facial nerve runs right through it."
I noticed the same thing. And I remember he had some surgery in that same spot some years back. I think it was during the 200 campaign.
John Crandell wrote on November 15, 2007 2:40 AM:Well, the 'B' Word could also stand for Brown, like the way he's shoved his nose up the asses of Bush, Robertson and Falwell the past four years.
dirtyword.net wrote on November 15, 2007 8:58 AM:'how do we beat the bitch?'
t-shirts, hats, stickers, mugs, buttons, magnets, and more are now available at:
it's the new anti-hillary conservative catch phrase!
Michael wrote on November 15, 2007 10:47 AM:Uh, brian, no they weren't, sorry.
adama wrote on January 18, 2008 3:44 AM:McCain did not show any sense of dignity and maturity in that. America certainly can't stand such President in these times.
Terry wrote on January 20, 2008 12:26 PM:I agree with BJoshin......McCain looks to have a parotid tumor on the left side. I have noticed it for months, but finally googled to see if a diagnosis of such, has been made. Since he had melanoma removed from various places, I think also on his cheek, I wonder if this is a malignant tumor that his camp has kept quiet? I read articles on the success of his surgery in 2000, but the results from the frozen sections of the biopsy, were not yet known at the time, and nothing mentioned after that. Plus, melanoma results aren't that accurate with frozen sections....so could still be an active problem. It is very obvious to see, to those of us who have seen patients with similar parotid tumors. For others, it is the out-pouching of his left jaw, as though he has a wad of chewing tabacco there but broader. Does anyone know anything? Is he healthy????
I B Joshin wrote on November 15, 2007 1:10 AM:
"OT, but watching that video it struck me that McCain may have a tumor in his left parotid gland.
