Class, aka Leave those Kids Alone

I'll present this one without comment. From Salon way back in 1998:

The joke did appear in McCain's hometown paper, the Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press did report the joke in full, so everyone in the press had access to McCain's words. But by censoring themselves, the Post, the Times and others helped McCain deflect flak and preserved his status as a Republican presidential contender.

Salon feels its readers deserve the unadulterated truth. Though no tape of McCain's quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because her father is Janet Reno."

The joke may be crude, but it pales in comparison with the published details surrounding the presidential sex scandal. McCain's two-liner conveys some interesting insights into what he considers humorous (lesbianism, a young woman's physical appearance), particularly since it was delivered to a Republican crowd. Remember, this is the party that champions pro-family values.

Just so we're clear, this is the man who is calling people ugly:


His father was a famous admiral who got his son in the Naval Academy where he graduated 894th out of 899.

UPDATE: It's all fair game now:


In case you can't quite see what is going on in this picture, it's a staged photo op between John McCain and self-proclaimed ass-kicker/f-ing redneck/baby daddy Levi Johnson. Later on, McCain will be asked by a member of the press what was said between him and Mr. Redneck. McCain will answer something to the effect of, "Son, you need to treat this nice young woman with respect and dignity. You made a sacred decision to keep that baby and it was the right thing to do."

This little passion play will delight literally thousands of teen aged children of conservative parents. As long as they can play off their unprotected sex and pregnancies into some sort of grand anti-abortion statement, they're good to go. Remember kids, blow jobs from interns degraded the presidency, but staged photo ops with former secessionists and unmarried knocked up teens = awesome moral lesson. The funniest thing that will come out of this little escapade is that the McCain campaign will blame the media for making an issue out of poor little Bristol and her redneck beau...even though the campaign are the ones who leaked the questions about paternity and told the world that Bristol is preggers. Ahhhhh...I love the smell of victimhood in the morning. Meanwhile, Palin's entire speech to the nation will be a "get-to-know-you" affair; the family will be painted as Main Street USA when it is quite clear to anyone who has ever lived on Main Street USA or in small town America that these yahoos are about as far from the real deal as you can get--they're the reality show version. America, welcome to Real World Wasilla.

PS: the real issue here is still that the McCain folks did zero vetting and they made a knee jerk decision that will likely become the template for Johnny-boy's actions in office should he be elected.