McCain doesn't know about condoms and preventing H.I.V.

[rebel with a cause]

March 16, 2007, 4:14 pm
McCain Stumbles on H.I.V. Prevention
By Adam Nagourney


Senator John McCain at a town hall meeting today. (Photo: Greg Brown/Associated Press) SOMEWHERE in NORTHERN IOWA — The unthinkable has happened. Senator John McCain met a question, while sitting with reporters on his bus as it rumbled through Iowa today, that he couldn’t – or perhaps wouldn’t – answer.

Did he support the distribution of taxpayer-subsidized condoms in Africa to fight the transmission of H.I.V.?

What followed was a long series of awkward pauses, glances up to the ceiling and the image of one of Mr. McCain’s aides, standing off to the back, urgently motioning his press secretary to come to Mr. McCain’s side.

The upshot was that Mr. McCain said he did not know this subject well, did not know his position on it, and relied on the advice of Senator Tom Coburn, a physician and Republican from Oklahoma.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/mccain-stumbles-on-hiv-prevention/

This may be old news to you all, but I just read it and thought it was funny and sad in its own way.

[whistle]

1. Like Ronald Reagan when he was asked about AIDS in 1981

...Raygun's response, "What is that?"

[Ninja Jordan]

7. AIDS was relatively new back then, so he had somewhat of an excuse. McCain can't claim that now.

[JackBeck]

11. Reagan had no excuse.

Reagan and his administration ignored the hundreds of deaths, which lead to thousands of deaths, which now are hundreds of thousands of infections in United States because those who were initially infected were viewed as unworthy of the attention.

Interestingly, Hepatitis C was also discovered during their administration and there are almost 300 million worldwide infected. Yet another pandemic ignored by that administration.

[Ninja Jordan]

13. Good point,

but Reagan might have at least been in the realm of realistically claiming ignorance. McCain, in 2007, cannot act that way. It's all I'm saying. I think comparing McCain's little episode to Reagan is giving McCain too much credit.

[whistle]

20. That's right Reagan and the conservative right never liked discussing sodomy

...because it was the only other sexual position they knew besides missionary style :yoiks: and they did not want to give it up :spray:

[TwilightGardener]

2. Will someone please sit down with John McCain--someone who loves

him--his wife, his advisers, a friend in the Senate--and convince him that he ought to preserve what's left of his reputation and dignity and drop out of the race? Are his advisers, who earn a paycheck from him, convincing him to keep on? Or is he just too unwilling to let go of his ambitions and delusions of grandeur?

[rebel with a cause]

8. He sold his soul for this

he probably feels like he has gone to far to turn back now. He has very little left to lose. So sad really. Another fatality to the evil that is bush and the right wing. JMHO

And don't get me wrong, I cannot stand mccain now, I just remember when I could.

[Deja Q]

3. Forgive me, and maybe I'm out of date, but shouldn't our candidates focus on America for a while?

And of course he wouldn't support taxpayer subsidized anything unless it helped somebody who already had millions if not billions of dollars in income...

Besides, I'd rather have my tax money going to help Americans first. Like the national debt and compared to AIDS, that debt's gonna be a tragedy. (and that's not to make AIDS sounds like a picnic, which is damn well isn't...)

[Bluebear]

4. You're all heart, Mr. "Help America First!" - how much would those condoms cost?

Really? In the long run and with all the shit we are going into debt for, how many trillions in Iraq, and you pick condoms for Africans to prevent HIV to start a "focus on America" campaign?

[Deja Q]

9. The moment somebody said taxpayers had a say means I have a say.

BTW: "all heart" can be applied to anybody for any reason.

I'll pick on anything I see.

And if everybody's whining about the debt and future of America because of the debt has any relevance, we'll all be in the same boat.

Lastly, no solution (or problem for that matter) is simple or simplistic. I expected to be flamed on this - after all, this is GD. Doesn't matter what anybody says, there will always be those disagreeing and contradicting themselves. As if any of it matters anymore, taxpayers truly don't have a say. Or hadn't you noticed?

[Bluebear]

10. Don't blame GD, that's weak.

And being a progressive, yes I will buy condoms to spare someone the agony of HIV and leave you to whine about the debt, as if this will have some big impact on it.

[terrya]

12. HIV rates in Africa are a worldwide crisis.

We should all be concerned about a global issue.

After 6 years of this administration, of hearing precisely that same "America First" shit, you'd think the progressives here would be discarding xenophobic crap like this. We are but one nation on this planet. It is up to us to focus on worldwide issues and to alleviate the suffering problems such as HIV/AIDS can cause. And in the 3 decade of this epidemic, I'm shocked that people would have such a cavalier attitude about AIDS.

[NMMNG]

15. For the empathy impaired

Helping keep HIV/AIDS rates down abroad does help Americans. When people in other nations become infected they can spread the disease to Americans if they come to America or if Americans go to their nation (and vice-versa). Taxpayer supplied condoms are not only humanitarian, but good common sense.

[rebel with a cause]

18. Playing the devil's advocate here maybe,

when you talk about USAers going to these other nations, could you mean not only tourist but also the soldiers stationed at the military bases there, the sailors docking at their ports, and the corporations that have relocated there for cheaper labor and more profit? Could it be that if we want to stop doing things like humanitarian aide and handing out condoms maybe we should also quit using these countries to enable our own selfish extravagant life styles. For the truth is that we could not have all the things we have if we did not exploit these poorer countries. And talk about our tax dollars!

Watched the movie "Stranger Than Fiction" and the one character said what many of us say. I don't care to pay the percentage of my taxes that go for social services, but I hate paying the part that goes to pay for a illegal war, corporate tax loopholes and the rich man's tax cuts. These are the things/people that I have no empathy for when it comes to paying taxes.

[NMMNG]

21. I mean Americans going abroad for all reasons

Watched the movie "Stranger Than Fiction" and the one character said what many of us say. I don't care to pay the percentage of my taxes that go for social services, but I hate paying the part that goes to pay for a illegal war, corporate tax loopholes and the rich man's tax cuts.

I feel the same way. Unfortunately there are people who feel just the opposite, and our "president" is one of them.

[rebel with a cause]

22. My message about the people going abroad was

directed toward the people who have no empathy toward poor people in other countries. They do not realize that we have so much influence on how these people live. When I got my degree in Sociology a few years back (five), I did much of my research and studies on how the USA interacts with the rest of the word. It was very interesting.

[donco6]

17. Like the cost of condoms is going to impact the Nat'l Debt.

That's just silly.

[PA Democrat]

5. My guess is that he knows DAMN well that the distribution of condoms can save lives

but that he is pandering to the wackos in the religious right who want to fund ONLY abstinence only programs. They think condoms promote promiscuity. The punishment in their eyes should be death.

McCain is disgusting. He'd rather let people die unnecessarily than upset the wackos.

[ComerPerro]

6. the akward moment for Repig hypocrites

when they have to wrestle science and common sense with their desire to court fanatic fundie nutcases.

[elehhhhna]

14. The old hoot is out. of. touch. PERIOD.

Read Vanity Fair's interview with him last month-- his mind is wandering, he repeats himself, he is a relic from another era (ageist? fine. He's losing it and it's evident, IMO. When that's the case w/ a "frontrunner" Prezzydential Candidate it's fair game to call him out.)

[Beelzebud]

16. You know how much condoms cost when McCain was a young man?

Who knows. They hadn't been invented yet.

[rebel with a cause]

19. nice try (ha)

mccain is nine years older than I am, and we had condoms, they were just different....I think. :shrug:

He was in the military when I was still a kid growing up in a religious household, so I am sure he knew more about them than I did. I remember when a girl in my class brought some kind of birth control item (I still don't know what it was) to school and we blew it up and tried to figure out how it was used. That was when I learned how men and women had sex, and I (the dummy) went home and asked my mother about it. I was around eleven and my mother looked me straight in the eye and lied. She told me that everything that I now knew was wrong, and I believed her. I was so confused in the years to come.:)

But yes they had condoms back then, they were those items that men/boys bought in the gas station restrooms when they were on dates with those bad women/girls. ;-)