Really? You'd vote for a guy who said he was "stumped" about whether condoms help stop the spread of HIV?
And to be clear, I don't believe that he's either stupid or uninformed enough to have truly been caught clueless on this issue (at least, I hope not!). I suspect that what he was doing was trying not to annoy the religious right. This is one of many, many things that tells me that whatever "independent" or "maverick" image McCain may have cultivated, he's accountable to the far right wing.
McCain's "maverick" image may apply to some issues, like campaign finance reform. But it clearly doesn't apply to others, including sexual politics. This is one example. Another is LGBT rights (which I described in the comment section of the NYTimes piece, so please don't thing that I'm plagiarizing). I remember, in the lead up to the 2000 election (probably in the Fall of 1999), when he was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and a man called in with an impassioned request to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the absurdly straightforward sexual orientation anti-discrimination act which still hasn’t passed. McCain said something that sounded nice and sincere about how he’d have to learn more about the issue.
A few minutes on the net, however, told me that he apparently already felt he knew enough to vote on it–in 1996, when it had failed in the Senate by one vote, McCain had stood up to be counted and cast his vote aginst ENDA. That is, he voted to make sure that employers could still fire employees simply for their sexual orientation. And years later, he wouldn’t own up to it.
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plumtreeblossom) wrote2008-03-22 09:37 am
no subject
And to be clear, I don't believe that he's either stupid or uninformed enough to have truly been caught clueless on this issue (at least, I hope not!). I suspect that what he was doing was trying not to annoy the religious right. This is one of many, many things that tells me that whatever "independent" or "maverick" image McCain may have cultivated, he's accountable to the far right wing.
no subject
no subject
McCain's "maverick" image may apply to some issues, like campaign finance reform. But it clearly doesn't apply to others, including sexual politics. This is one example. Another is LGBT rights (which I described in the comment section of the NYTimes piece, so please don't thing that I'm plagiarizing). I remember, in the lead up to the 2000 election (probably in the Fall of 1999), when he was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, and a man called in with an impassioned request to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), the absurdly straightforward sexual orientation anti-discrimination act which still hasn’t passed. McCain said something that sounded nice and sincere about how he’d have to learn more about the issue.
A few minutes on the net, however, told me that he apparently already felt he knew enough to vote on it–in 1996, when it had failed in the Senate by one vote, McCain had stood up to be counted and cast his vote aginst ENDA. That is, he voted to make sure that employers could still fire employees simply for their sexual orientation. And years later, he wouldn’t own up to it.