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Can you imagine that a modern democracy might sink so low as to nominate for its highest office a man who jokes about apes raping women? Who publicly mocks the teenage daughter of a rival about her appearance? Who calls his spouse a "cunt"?
Welcome to John McCain's America, circa 2008.
If there's one character issue that's gone entirely uncovered by our otherwise scandal-starved media, it's the long and distressing record of misogyny displayed by the candidate who earned the nickname McNasty in high school.
To get a full sense of how McCain has behaved toward women during his life, we'll need to travel back to his college years, when McCain (by his own admission) did a lot of carousing. As Tim Dickinson notes in his recent Rolling Stone profile of McCain, he hit on two young women the summer after his sophomore year — and showed his true colors when rejected: "He cursed them so vilely that he was hauled into court on a profanity charge."
Fifteen years later, in 1973, McCain made his heroic return from Vietnam, where he was a prisoner for five years. There is no disputing the courage and nobility he exhibited as a POW. Those years have become virtually the centerpiece of his campaign. His subsequent treatment of his first wife is hardly ever mentioned.
A little refresher course. During the time her husband was a prisoner, Carol McCain suffered a near-fatal car accident. In addition to caring for three children, the former model underwent numerous reconstructive surgeries. When her husband returned from Vietnam in 1973, she was overweight, on crutches and four inches shorter than when he left. What happened next?
McCain started having affairs — lots of them. Nobody knows how many, and neither McCain nor his ex will go into details. Her sole comment on the break up: "John was turning forty and wanting to be twenty-five again." And, apparently, Mormon.
I'm exaggerating for effect, right? Not really.
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McCain started having affairs — lots of them.
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In 1979, McCain met Cindy Hensley. He was forty-two at the time. Hensley, a beer heiress, was twenty-four. (Fun fact: upon meeting, the happy couple both lied about their ages! Totally adorable.) In his autobiography, McCain insisted that he divorced Carol months before marrying Cindy. Not true. He married Cindy five weeks after the divorce. He even applied for a marriage license before his divorce had been finalized. Oh, he also "cohabitated" with Carol for the first nine months of his relationship with Cindy.
McCain's pals in the press virtually never mention the fact that he's an adulterer. If you want to see McCain's own response, check out this interview with CNN's John King. Is it me, or does McCain look like a guy with an awful lot to hide?
The most succinct summary of the divorce came from Ross Perot, of all people. "He threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona and the rest is history," observed Perot, a POW advocate who helped pay Carol McCain's medical bills during the war.
Lots of men cheat on their wives and leave their families for younger women, of course. It's not a crime. But McCain's treatment of his new wife has hardly been inspiring. Cliff Schecter, author of the book The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't, offered this unsettling tidbit from the 1992 campaign trail. Cindy McCain had the temerity to make a comment about McCain's thinning hair. Rejoined hubby: "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." Pretty rough language for the gal who pays your mortgages.
But then, McCain's profane streak is no secret to those who work with him. Nor is his tendency to indulge in jokes that might otherwise qualify as hate crimes. Here's one he allegedly told in 1986, to a group in our nation's capitol:
Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, "Where is that marvelous ape?"
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Commentarium (18 Comments)
Doesn't this belong on the Daily Kos, Huffington Post, or Olbermann's show, and not Nerve? I'm sure it's written by one of the many hundreds of Sarah Palin hand-wringers that almost made me want to vote for that poor bastard. Save your contempt for someone that deserves it, like Bush. Plus, the Chelsea Clinton joke is pretty solid. Don't get me wrong, I'm not voting for him, but it's idiots like this that make me feel more than a little bad for the guy. What a hatchet job.
Dear JC,
Let's see, you think that the Chelsea Clinton joke was "pretty solid". That is, it's ok for a US senator to call the then adolescent daughter of the President of the U.S. ugly? How would you like your colleagues making jokes about how ugly your daughter is? You're an idiot and an asshole. And, what part of this article did you find untrue or biased?
To be honest, I take the joke more as a jab at Reno. And by calling me an idiot and and asshole, you've lowered the tone, just as Steve Almond does. Congrats. Direct your anger and nastiness someplace useful. Like chopping wood, or torturing kitties. I didn't call any of this untrue, but the entire thing is the very definition of biased. You're obviously not only easily offended, but utterly clueless as to what "biased" means.
"...you've lowered the tone..." What do you call a presidential candidate who jokes about apes raping women, calls his wife a "cunt" and jokes about adolescent girls?
steve almond, I love you
The real point to make here is not that the article was unfair to McCain (it isn't at all) or is too nasty in its own right. The point is: this thing's over. Don't give the right wingnuts anything else to point to on TV and say "that's why the left must be defeated." The writer -- and the editors of this blog -- has a tin ear for politics. SNL should drop the Palin thing already, and Nerve should not be hopping into politics at this late date with an article that was cribbed almost in its entirety from the middle section of the Rolling Stone piece. Drop it.
Damn you guys hate McCain. Where's your op ed pieces on Obama? At least PRETEND to be impartial.
So if McCain's a creep we have to call Obama a creep also, just to be balanced? What a bunch of crap. Sometimes things really are one-sided. That's not bias, it's just the truth.
XXX--Why should Nerve pretend to be impartial? To my knowledge, it's never claimed to be so and there's nothing wrong with that. If you want news, read a newspaper. This is a magazine for cultural commentary. If you don't like the opinions expressed (however well-founded they are) then you don't need to read them.
JC--It doesn't really work to act like you're looking for high-minded dialogue when you condone a nasty, mean-spirited, and very public joke about a teenage girl made by a grown man. If he wanted to bash Reno, he should have taken her on on her own merits, instead of taking a cheap shot at her looks by publicly humiliating a kid. Pick on someone your own size.
I really don't give two shits about off-color jokes and adultery. That's the basis of this article, and to champion it is to cast a wide net over not only Bill Clinton, Ted & Jack Kennedy, and every other politician, but many people the world over since time immemorial. As to poor Chelsea Clinton, I've got nothing against her, but a president's family has long been game for such barbs. The president's daughter is UGLY! Oh my god, the sky is falling! As to the ape joke, he ALLEGEDLY said it. In court, they call it hearsay, and it's not admissible. And maybe very few of you actually read the article that ALLEGES this, and notice that some Arizona dems brought it out less than a week and a half before the election. Again, I'm playing devil's advocate here. Sarah Palin is incontrovertible proof of why no one should vote for McCain. It's just amazing that only one of you will acknowledge how utterly biased this article is, and how it's just as bad a character attack on McCain as Palin asserting Obama and Bill Ayers are "pals". Glass houses, sticks and stones, two wrongs, he who is without sin, he that lies down with dogs... PO is right on one point. There is such a thing as "running up the score" and will only sabotage the gains you've already made. Steve Almond is giving the likes of Karl Rove and the late Lee Atwater some kind of creepy orgasmic smile somewhere, and I don't like that image one bit.
The rest of us aren't posting about how utterly biased this article is, because it's so obvious. Nobody should be deciding how to vote based on an off-color joke told two decades ago and a few other things taken entirely out of context. This is not the kind of article that I come to Nerve to read.
Amen.
1)I'm a woman, and I won't be voting for McCain, but my response to the 'evidence' that Almond has dredged up to paint a picture of sexism is one of indifference. They each seem to be either hearsay or in poor taste, and none of it rises above what we've seen from the Clintons, the Kennedys, the Bidens...
2)Does Nerve really have to be so shriekingly political? This piece wasn't even entertaining - what is Nerve for, exactly?
3)I like much of Steve's work. This piece is just part of the tunnel vision that comes with election hysteria and I hope to see more relevant, sharp, entertaining material from him in the future.
Yes, this guy has a point of view, but I think it's relevant and concerning. Frankly, it connects the dots in a way that I haven't seen elsewhere.
You sound sooooooo offended. When I am 72, the shit people can talk would be endless. Based on your fired indignation, President Kennedy probably deserved to get shot, Clinton impeached...cheating louses!...Put in perspective, will ya?...Nobody gets offended when women say they cream over Clinton or when Barbara Walters calls him sexy to his face. Where is the indignation there?....we'll see what skeleton's fall out of Slick Willy's closet when all is said and done....someone please, pass the Couvoisier.
it's really almost impressive how stupid the conservative commentators sound here. total absence of moral logic. no attempt to muster a rational argument. their candidate gets exposed as a misogynistic creep and the best they can do is to scream "wah-wah! no fair! clinton cheated! wah-wah!" what a delight it's been to watch the right collapse under the weight of its own idiotic arrogance. wah-wah! what a pack of losers. they dish it out, but they can never take it. ah well, at least you guys can rent that palin porn and spank it in the privacy of your own gun-festooned basements.
Yeah, McCain is terrible. Phil Donahue for President!
you have made a valid point. i would only add that it all translates to why politicians exist: power.
Now you say something