First of all, props to Ripper McCord for suggesting the idea of taking the offensive on John McCain. Pundits talk about how we really don’t know Barack Obama. The question is, how well do we know John McCain? (Work has prevented me from checking TPM regularly, so if someone has posted about this issue already, I apologize.)

John McCain treats women as second class citizens both personally and politically. The points below are supplied in defense of this thesis. I encourage readers to supply other personal and professional examples (with citations) of McCain’s attitude towards women.

Two Examples of How John McCain Personally Interacts with Women

1) When John McCain campaigned at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, he jokingly said that he encouraged his wife to participate in their beauty pageant. “With a little luck,” he said, reading from his notes, “she could be the only woman ever to serve as both the First Lady and Miss Buffalo Chip!” This video shows that the Buffalo Chip contest makes the Miss America Pageant look like an audition for Mensa. Does John McCain think of his wife only as a piece of meat or, in times of anger (allegedly), as a c**t? How sad it would be if all he appreciated about Cindy is her appearance.

2) A NYT article on Carly Fiorina, written Elisabeith Bumiller, may provide additional insight. Bumiller writes:

"…on a recent morning on the McCain campaign bus …the candidate summoned Fortune’s onetime "most powerful woman in business" to sing to him and an audience of reporters in the back… Ms. Fiorina, embarrassed but not at all shy, did as she was told. "Now we know the secret of her success," Mr. McCain enthused when Ms. Fiorina was done with her serenade."
 
By summoning Fiorina to sing, McCain was demonstrating his power (over a woman) to an audience of reporters. By attributing her accomplishments to her singing, McCain was trivializing her intelligence and business skills. Would he have made Joe Lieberman sing? I think not.

Women in John McCain’s Political World

1) Despite the fact that John McCain claims he supports equal pay for equal work, he opposes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which increases the amount of time a woman has to file a pay discrimination complaint. An April vote prevented the bill from going to the Senate for full debate and a vote. Both Clinton and Obama took a break from campaigning to vote in favor of advancing the bill. McCain could not pull himself away from his selfish quest for the Presidency to vote. (McCain can’t even make a token attempt to put his country before himself.)

McCain is opposed to the bill because he fears that it’s passage would open “us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems." This may or may not be true, but not enacting the bill guarantees that pay discrimination claims will not be heard. Here is another site that talks about the bill McCain does not support. The article provides one of McCain’s solutions to the equal pay dilemma: "They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households." McCain shows how clearly he misses the concept of equal pay. He is essentially telling women, that it is their fault that they are not getting equal pay. He believes that women need to try harder than men in order to get equal pay for the same job.

2) Roe vs. Wade – I don’t know if we need to go into depth on this one. Suffice it to say that any Supreme Court judges McCain appoints will have a propensity to curtail women’s reproductive choices. So says this article. The end of the article is especially illuminating and shocking. 

The bottom line: McCain, in his personal and political interactions with women and women’s issues, is deplorable.