Today in the Politico, Ben Smith tracks the numerous offensive jokes — often aimed at women — that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) loves to tell on the campaign trail. Though the campaign said McCain “didn’t recall” telling a joke during his 1986 Senate race about women loving rape, the campaign insisted these offensive jokes proved McCain was “authentic” and showed “McCain being McCain”:
“He’s long said that he’s said and done things in the past that he regrets,” [McCain spokesman Brian] Rogers said. “You’ve just got to move on and be yourself — that’s what people want. They want somebody who’s authentic, and this kind of stuff is a good example of McCain being McCain.“
The mainstream media has also gushed over McCain’s “trademark wit,” declaring that a joke about blowing up Jon Stewart with an IED “makes him seem much more accessible” because “everybody likes a guy with a good sense of humor.”
Update
The “authentic” appeal of McCain’s often offensive humor apparently doesn’t extend to his fundraisers. A prominent bundler for McCain, Clayton Williams, has now been quietly excised from the campaign’s list of fundraisers as a result of a “tasteless joke about rape during his unsuccessful 1990 campaign for governor.”
Update
,As Ben Smith points out, the McCain campaign’s spokesman said that the “McCain being McCain” reference “excluded the alleged rape joke.” We regret the error.
Previous in TP Politics
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.