McCain and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

McCain's had worse weeks, but I liked the sound of that title.

Here's McCain losing a few female voters (btw is it just me or does "women voters" sound wrong?) and unintentionally providing us all with a good laugh. The look on his face at the 51 seconds mark is priceless;


And just today the White House accidentally gave Obama a big assist on Iraq, just as he's visiting that country.

Update (07/27/08): This doesn't change the fact that McCain punted when confronted with a difficult "women's issue," but it turns out that the problem his own adviser was referring to is not widespread at all. Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO, current McCain economics adviser, brought up the potentially dangerous issue of birth control when she publicly complained that health insurance companies are covering Viagra, but not birth control. If true, that's a pretty clear cut case of a societal double standard. But it turns out that Fiorina's concerns have largely been addressed in recent years. (The rest of the interview is true though; McCain did vote against making coverage of contraceptives mandatory - though of course, as with all bills before the Senate, there were probably a whole slew of provisions in there.)
p.s. Thinking about this makes me want to listen to Loretta Lynn's great, pro-birth control song "The Pill."
p.p.s. The Chinese guy at my local beer+ store loves classic American music; Dylan, Elvis, Beach Boys, teenybopper songs from the 50s and 60s... his taste is impeccable. One time he was listening to some Conway Twitty. I said to him, "Conway Twitty, eh? I'm a fan too." And then he starts laughing, telling me that I'm too young to be listening to that kind of music.