The View is known as a highly opinionated group of strong women who hammer through each other's conversations and points of view. Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg try to guide the five women through a host of topics. The Presidential race has become a favourite topic in the last few weeks, as it has on nearly every media outlet (with the exception of Oprah -- I wrote an article on this as well, Oprah Winfrey and Politics, which discusses Oprah's refusal to have Sarah Palin on her show).
The women of The View have made several controversial statements lately -- Elizabeth Hasselbeck talking about Michelle Obama's refusal to discuss several things behind the scenes on the show and Joy Behar talking about how the media has fallen in love with Sarah Palin. John McCain looked like he didn't know what hit him when he appeared on Friday's show. Even Elizabeth Hasselbeck, who assures him that he has her vote and nearly always takes a very right wing conservative viewpoint, asked McCain some tough questions.
Barbara Walters hammered away on what exactly was the change and reform that Sarah Palin and he were espousing. She asked for specific instances of what Palin was trying to reform, even at one point asking if she was going to reform him and his party. Joy Behar began talking about McCain's very controversial political ads claiming that Obama wants to teach sexual education to children and that Obama was referring to Palin when he said "You can put lipstick on a pig". She called both of these commercials outright lies that said they were endorsed by him. When she asked if he did endorse them, he said they weren't lies and that he did indeed endorse them. He said that Obama chooses his words very carefully and that he should not have said the "lipstick on a pig" comment. When Barbara Walters said that McCain had used the very same term when describing Hilary Clinton's health care policies, McCain asserted that he was not referring to Clinton but her policies. He said this even while saying that Obama was talking about Palin with the exact same quote. His ads claiming that Obama wants to teach kindergarteners about sex ed were no longer talked about on the show as they moved onto other things. Obama asserts that he wants to warn kindergarteners of sexual predators and give them talks about appropriate touching -- he's not exactly handing out condoms to five year olds.
Elizabeth Hasselbeck, his staunch supporter, went on to ask him about his opinion of Rowe v. Wade. Surprisingly, at least to me, he stated that he believes the supreme court made the wrong decision on Rowe v. Wade. He stated that he is pro-life and that he believes that life begins at conception. Later when his wife, Cindy McCain, joined him, she went on to say that she too is pro-life but has exceptions for cases of incest and rape. This is oppositional to Sarah Palin's views of abortion who believes in no choice under no circumstance.
Walters asked Mrs. McCain about the media coverage of John McCain not knowing how many houses they have. Mrs. McCain asserted that their number of houses played no role in the campaign and did not answer the question either. She stated that they were very fortunate and shared their fortune with others, which is well recorded. They discussed Cindy McCain's humanitarian roles and even showed a clip of her visiting Georgia last week. In regards to Georgia, Cindy attested that Russia was "the bad guy" in the situation and that women and children were dying at their hands.
Barbara Walters asked John McCain about his assertion that Sarah Palin would be the best Vice President ever. McCain jokingly said that politicians are never given to over exaggeration and conjecture. He went on to say that Palin was a great running mate and had a stellar record of reforming spending in Alaska. He says that he made the right choice picking her as his running mate. He said that he wanted to go "head to head" with Obama and that he has invited him to appear on shows with him or at town hall meetings. He said that these appearances, which Obama has refused, would change the entire tenor of the presidential race.
Whoopi Goldberg asked McCain if he believed in the separation of Church and State. McCain asserted that he did but went on to say that America is founded on "in God we trust". He talked about Palin's speeches referring to God, saying that he agreed with what she was saying. That they had to follow God's will and that they had to be the best people they could be to follow God's plan. Goldberg asked McCain if Palin could really be the President if, God forbid, anything should happen to him. McCain asserted that Palin would make a terrific President. He said that she was more than capable of running the country.
In the end, I think McCain appeared much like a deer in headlights. The women on the show asked tough questions with no holds barred and he didn't seem to be expecting that. His wife had to come to his defense on certain points, clarifying what he didn't say but should have. He said that he would reach the youth of the country through his website and by appearing on shows that young people liked to watch. The clip of him recently released, being returned to America after his years as a POW was shown to him. He said that he learned to put his country before himself during those years. While he is definitely a hero, I'm unsure that he is prepared to handle running the country if he can't even win a verbal sparring with five women. He definitely loves his wife, his children, his God and his country. On those points he was absolutely clear. While Cindy states that the number of houses they have is irrelevant, I wonder if he still doesn't know the answer.
