Polianiac

I am such a sucker for slapstick comedy. I know it is a touch sadistic, but honestly, we have all been there at one point or another. It wasn’t a trick question this week when Presidential Candidate John McCain faced a reporter who stated, “There are many health insurance plans that will cover Viagra but won’t cover birth-control medication. Those women would like a choice,” she observed. When McCain was asked for his position on the issue, he firmly stated, “I certainly do not want to discuss that issue.” Well, why not? What could possibly be treacherous about explaining your views regarding insurance companies offering prescription drug coverage for Viagra but refusing the same coverage for female oral contraceptives? McCain’s physical reaction was stunning. He looked like a man who had just been asked if he needed Viagra, or maybe a man who had just been asked to go buy tampons. Now that would justify, “I certainly do not want to discuss that issue.”

Pressing Senator McCain further, the reporter stated that many women consider it “unfair that health insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control.” She concluded by asking, “Do you have an opinion on that?” By this time McCain was ashen. He looked like I would look if someone were chasing me for a ‘high colonic’. Regardless of which video you view, this train comes completely off the track. I would not be surprised to learn some aide off-camera was frantically trying to raise the secret service. The irony in this moment is that John McCain obviously knows something we don’t. He wrestles with that knowledge before our very eyes.  Whatever he knows he doesn’t want to talk about plays out as not knowing.  Something about Viagra, Birth Control, and insurance companies really disturbs Senator McCain—gee, I wonder what that might be…

Quotes used in this post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/09/mccain-squirms-when-asked_n_111798.html

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