I am in complete awe of Meghan McCain’s disgraceful appearance recently on Real Time with Bill Maher…and I’m not even talking about politics!
A little background, courtesy of the Huffington Post:
“It all got started during a discussion of George Bush, who McCain acknowledged was a less than perfect president. But McCain also pointed a finger at the Obama administration in Bush’s defense, saying she felt that the Obama administration “has to stop completely blaming everything on its predecessor.” When Maher asked McCain if she really thought this is what Obama is doing, McCain said “I do to a degree.” A clearly annoyed Begala immediately shook his head and said “not to enough of a degree, I’m sorry not nearly enough.” He then began to explain how President Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter for years, to which McCain responded blithely “you know I wasn’t born yet so I wouldn’t know.” Going in for the kill, Begala fired back “I wasn’t born during the French Revolution but I know about it.”
Let’s face some facts here. Meghan McCain is the daughter of a well known Republican senator from Arizona…and that is it. She is not a political pundit and as she displayed, has no understanding of policy or history.
I truly respect what the Republican Party media relations people are trying to do here. Ms. McCain is a young face that has the potential to attract a whole slew of young folks who would normally not give the GOP a second look. However, this is only true if given the right opportunities and this television appearance was not one of them. She was sent out on national television without a moment of preparation from advisors and as a result looked like a deer caught in headlights.
Watching her try and run for cover whenever she got in over her head was more cringe-worthy than a Curb Your Enthusiasm marathon.
I do have to give credit to Ms. McCain for even appearing on the show. But her lack of preparation and the damaging results truly highlights a media relations effort gone the way of the buffalo.