He knew what he was getting into when he walked onto the set of Ellen’s show, and she held John McCain’s feet to the fire on same-sex marriage and legal rights for gay couples. McSame believes that same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements, but they should not be able to marry due to what he says is “the unique status of marriage between and man and a woman.”
Wait - is this the same John McCain who made this commercial for the failed 2006 Arizona Marriage Amendment, which would have effectively banned same-sex couples from legal recognition of any kind?
Now watch his appearance on Ellen through that prevaricating lens; it’s below the fold.
Here’s the transcript:
I wonder how the fundies will react to this appearance; McCain certainly looks a tad uncomfortable sitting there trying to explain his bigotry. After all, he’s flip flopped on this more than once, depending on the audience he’s pandering in front of.MCCAIN: I just believe in the unique status of marriage between man and woman. And I know that we have a respectful disagreement on that issue.
ELLEN: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think that it is looked at and some people are saying the same that blacks and women did not have the right to vote. Women just got the right to vote in 1920. Blacks didn’t have the right to vote till 1870. It just feels like there’s this old way of thinking (that) we are not all the same. We are all the same people. All of us. You’re no different than I am. Our love is the same. (applause) To me what it feels like just, you know, I will speak for myself…it feels when someone says you can have a contract and you’ll still have insurance and you’ll get all that. It sounds to me like saying well you can sit there (points in one direction), you just can’t sit there (points in another direction). That’s what it sounds like to me. It doesn’t feel inclusive. It feels isolated. It feels like we aren’t owed the same things and the same wording.
MCCAIN: Well, I’ve heard you articulate that position in a very eloquent fashion. We just have a disagreement and I, along with many, many others wish you every happiness.
ELLEN: Thank you. So you’ll walk me down the aisle? Is that what you said?
(laughter)
MCCAIN: Touché
***
Ah, the Freepi obviously watch Ellen and decided to give a review of the presumptive GOP nom’s appearance.
Why is he going on the Ellen Degenerate Show? Anyone running for President should stay off these idiotic talk shows.0
NcCain is a complete dolt. He must truly believe that these media types like him. Goes on the Ellen DeGeneres show? Total idiot; laughingstock.
We’ll see if Ellen DeGeneres is such a big fan of gay marriage after she marries Portia Rossi, and then, some time after that, Portia sues for divorce and demands half of Ellen’s estate. That will be an occasion for some serious Schadenfreude…
The definition of the word ‘marriage’ has always been…the union of a man and a woman. The Liberals will not stop until they have obliterated every standard that underpins our culture. I do hope that we won’t end up going the way of the Romans.
Probably had a “kick me” sign taped to his back.
why give gay couples all the legal perks married people have, but deny them the term “marriage”.
Gay couples shouldn’t get any legal perks married people get. Period.
The great Republican victories of 1994 and 2000 were supposed to wrest us of these leftist entanglements.
This is very discouraging. I was starting to like Ellen again because she has started to put aside her gay-rights views and returned to being a funny gal. I remember when she first came out in the mid-1990s she was hilarious on her own show. Then the gay thing hit her, and she had to make an agenda out of everything. But she kind of redeemed herself in “Finding Nemo.”
Pandering to the gays now. He really thinks the libs are going to kiss up to him. He is in for a surprise as soon as the nominations are complete.
I really liked Ellen’s show in the 90’s, until she began to use it to promote the gay agenda, agreed. Ever since, Ellen hasn’t been as funny to me. She may be a bit more subdued about it now, but she will never stop pushing that agenda.
After Ellen got her talk show she seemed to have stopped being politically controversial. I thought it was because Ellen had seen how Rosie O’Donnell had gone down in flames after she politicized her talk show. But I guess some people never learn.
Well, you see, he is a zany, whacky Republican Maverick, that McCain is! Haw haw…and I’ll tell you what else. Now that Ellen the Lesbian has challenged him, you can expect ol’ McCain the Maverick to help rebrand the Republicans to the party that’s in favor of queers gettin’ married. Haw haw! That’s just the kind of zany, whacky antics we can expect from this Maveric!
I’m going to disagree with most of the posters here, and say I think McCain is smart to get his face out there in front of the (mostly clueless) public. All you hear on the news or see in the paper these days is Obama, Hillary, Hillary, Obama. McCain is barely mentioned by the news media. He could have fallen off the planet as far as they are concerned. No, Mac *needs* to get his name and face out there, and show himself as a real person and maybe even one with a sense of humor. I saw him on The Daily Show the other night, and while he obviously did not turn Jon Stewart around, he did acquit himself well. McCain is the one using Ellen and Jon and the others, not the other way around.
“Finding Nemo” was anti-parent propaganda. The Dad was portrayed as a buffoon for trying to protect his spawn. Nemo gets himself in a lot of trouble by disobeying his father, but it’s the Dad who ends up apologizing for not deferring to his child’s (Nemo’s) superior, progressive wisdom. The film was cute, but I thought the underlying “moral” of the story was all wet. Honor thy Father and Mother.
Leaving aside the no-class name calling, Ellen’s show has passed Oprah’s as the highest rated daytime talk show. The bulk of the audience for such shows is the everyday heterosexual housewife. Such voters are Hillary’s main support, but this year by the Obamanites treatment of Hillary they may be more open to a different choice. Bottom line is he has nothing to lose and at least the chance to gain much. Since it’s free airtime for the McCain campaign, it would take a real fool to pass up the forum to try to slice away some of the democrat women from Obama. It seems McCain has smarter advisers then he would find here.
I will vote for McCain only to block Obama from being President; however, it’s appearances like this, his non funny stop on Saturday Night Live, and his bizzare positions and comments that make it a real freaking chore.
What an ASS. He is not getting THIS vote. Thats for sure.
He also supports “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Clinton’s plan to allow gays to stay in the military. With our luck, he’ll pick Crist for VP and the gaying of the Rep. party will be complete. Ugh!
41 Responses to “Ellen puts John McCain on the spot”
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Mixed feelings. On one hand, I would have liked her to push a little more at the end and not make a joke out of his bias. On the other hand, she’s in the entertainment industry…
I thought her calm-but-passionate response was beautiful.
Actually, I thought the “So you’ll walk me down the aisle” joke was perfect. He sat there in awkward silence, knowing that she’d just called out his like of “wishing her happiness.” His, “touche” said as much.
Sometimes a joke can pinpoint the truth.
All right Ellen! “You’ll walk me down the aisle”!! Perfect. Sock him one right in the (het) privilege!
John McCain can fuck right off. Ellen made an outstanding and eloquent point about being treated like a second-class citizen and he just mumbled about “respectfully disagreeing” with her.
God what an asshole. And, GO ELLEN!
knowing that she’d just called out his like of “wishing her happiness.” His, “touche” said as much.
Shit, calling out his lie.
OK, does he look like Dr. Evil in the last shot or what?
Also, I really liked the Rosa Parks analogy (you can sit there, but not there) … which McCain obviously missed.
Last time I checked Obama opposed same-sex marriage also.
Charlotte, I thought “lunch counter.” But bus works.
Why are people so reluctant to talk about Loving v. Virginia? I feel like even liberals are afraid of talking about the fact that, 40 years ago, interracial marriage was illegal in many states. I guess anything so repellent and so recent produces too much cognitive dissonance when it rubs up against the American myth of progress and tolerance.
But of course, Loving is a much more precise tool for confronting bigots on the issue of gay marriage: if they try to talk about historical and traditional definitions of marriage, point out that up until 1967, “marriage” in America meant a union between a man and a woman of the same race. Then let them defend that “tradition”.
LOL at the guy frothing about Finding Nemo.
Well, what he said was of course worthless, but you do have to give him props for appearing on the show in the first place, knowing he would be grilled.
This goes back to the frustration progressives feel about how the media seems to treat McCain gently. It’s because he makes themselves available to them regularly, which is practically unheard of for a major-party presidential candidate (much less a President). Reporters are human beings: Treat them with respect and make it easy for them to do their jobs, and they’ll respond positively. There’s no mystery about it.
My favorite bit is the “I hope we don’t go the way of the Romans.” I always wonder what actual Romans think about that, y’know? I mean, it’s not like Rome isn’t one of the great cities of the world even today, or that the Italians of been expunged from the earth, and still aren’t influential in art, culture and the sciences, hehe.
But how can you fight the kind of ignorance that makes people hope we don’t go the “way of the Romans” when the Romans are, y’know, doing pretty good for themselves.
I love Ellen. Always have, really, but this was classy and beautiful.
Plus, McCain is an ass.
Best nugget is the comment about McCain using these daytime talk shows to mine for Clinton voters. He has everything to gain and nothing to lose as the Republican base has to vote for him, and he might pick up some independents and some disaffected Hillaryites. He does seem to have moved his position on this issue a bit to the left, so I guess that’s some progress.
Chris, I always wonder about that too… but I figure that they’re afraid that America will lose her *empire* (which they stringently deny the existence of 9 times of 10) or at the least, her empirical powers (being primarily military and economic might) and thus be confined to her own borders and interests… like modern Britain and Rome, no longer monolithic with the freedom oppres, er, rescue the heathen at will…
That’s my take at least.
I think we just saw the last remnant of his soul die there right on his face.
The definition of the word ‘marriage’ has always been…the union of a man and a woman.
…Or multiple women, but hey, same thing, right?
The Liberals will not stop until they have obliterated every standard that underpins our culture. I do hope that we won’t end up going the way of the Romans.
Um, I hope we don’t go “the way of the [ancient] Romans” either, but I have a feeling this person and I are approaching that from totally different viewpoints.
Whenever anyone pulls that “go the way of the Romans” stuff, I like to remind them that the decline of the Roman Empire coincided with its establishment of Christianity as the state religion.
you do have to give him props for appearing on the show in the first place, knowing he would be grilled.
Why would we think he “knew” he would be “grilled”? It’s a daytime entertainment-oriented talk show. Even “hard-hitting” talking heads type shows lob him softballs, so why would he expect the knives to be out at Ellen?
It’s because he makes themselves available to them regularly, which is practically unheard of for a major-party presidential candidate (much less a President).
I can’t recall an election cycle when presidential candidates refused to speak to the media.
Obama has been appearing on major talk shows of this ilk.
And let’s not even broach the subject of Dear Leader’s recent appearance on a GAME SHOW, for crying out loud!
I’ve actually gotten to the point of being amused by the “every ancient civilization that accepted homosexuality is gone” thing - and I point out that every ancient civilization that didn’t is also gone. Kinda the definition of “ancient.”
I seriously don’t get what the Free Republic people are upset about - that he wasn’t as openly contemptuous of Ellen on her own show as they would have liked? Don’t they understand the political value of putting a civil face on bigotry?
Isn’t it odd that the Freepi think that ancient Rome is analogous to the contemporary USA in terms of teh homosex but not in terms of a malignant empire ruled by a violent elite? Wonder why that is.
He can barely look her in the face. Is he a bigot or is he just spouting bigotry because he’s trying to get the Freepi vote? I don’t know which option would make him more despicable. Either way, he’s scum.
Because Ellen is gay? Because the CA Supreme Court passed down its marriage opinion and Ellen immediately announced she was getting married?
And McCain went on her show a couple of days later. He went on that show specifically to tell her audience he is for civil unions, which is a big break from the Bush orthodoxy.
Yes. The difference is that talk shows “of this ilk” are the home crowd for Obama and hostile territory for McCain.
Yes. A scripted appearance on a game show. Bush, to a huge degree and many other candidates including Obama don’t like unmanaged, unscripted public moments. That’s when you say “asshole” in front of an open mic or call somebody “Sweetie.”
McCain’s press corps considers him to be unusually open with them, and unusually willing to take unvetted questions from hostile voters in front of television cameras.
Why would we think he “knew” he would be “grilled”? It’s a daytime entertainment-oriented talk show. Even “hard-hitting” talking heads type shows lob him softballs, so why would he expect the knives to be out at Ellen?
Because Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most visible gay people in show business (not a hard achievement, since showbiz is one of the few remaining professions where gay people are almost shoved into the closet). And she has received a lot of publicity for her plans to marry Portia or Claudia or whoever she is. It’s impossible for McCain not to have known that hard questions about his stance on gay marriage were coming.
I can’t recall an election cycle when presidential candidates refused to speak to the media.
Of course not, but McCain makes himself available to them every day, and lets them ask as many questions as they want. That’s unheard of for a major candidate.
All I’m saying is that, instead of pouting and whining about how unfair it all is, the Democrats would do well to get some pointers from McCain about handling the media.
Once again we get the comment that marriage has historically been a contract between a man and a woman. Actually, historically, marriage has been a contract between two men: The (male) head of the woman’s family and the groom (or sometimes the male head of the grooms family). Historically, the bride (and sometimes the groom) counted themselves lucky if they had any voice in the matter at all. It’s only in the last 50 - 75 years that the concept that marriage is something that young people decide for themselves has taken root.
I wonder if the people who deplore gay marriage as “not in keeping with the historic concept of marriage” would be happy with their parents (or grandparents, or rich uncle Albert) picking when and who they should marry. If you are looking for people keeping to marriage as it has been practiced for most of human history, look to examples such as that polygamist ranch in Texas raided recently. Is that truely what these people want to see marriage return to?
Yeah “respectful disagreement” … well, if you can take being wrong and me thinking of you as a huge douche, as “respectful”, then sure.
I don’t get how people think they can have an opinion that denies me, and those I love, rights, marks us as second-class citizens, and think that we’ll just “respect” their opinion as though it was merely a disagreement over sporting teams.
Oh, and you know the “Roman’s” comment? You know what came just before the fall of the Roman Empire? Not homosexuality, that was there for the entirety, so that HUNDREDS of years … sounds pretty damn stable to me.
No, what happened just a while before the fall?
The empire became Christian.
Sit on that and fucking scream, freepers.
Real respectful disagreement would be exactly the opposite of what McCain said. Instead of wishing Ellen and her partner well in a ceremony he believes to be meaningless and wrong — while working hard to deny the rights that go with it to millions of similar couples — he would admit his disapproval of the ceremony and allow the rights.
It’s not a respectful disagreement when one person says, “I have the right to breathe” and the other says “I wish you the very best, and I’m going to sit here in my spacesuit and vent the compartment you’re in to vacuum.”
Because Ellen DeGeneres is one of the most visible gay people in show business
When has a person’s personal affiliations had much at all to do with whether they’re willing to stand up and ask the tough questions in a situation like this?
Log Cabin Republicans, anyone?
Ever heard of a little politician named Alan Keyes?
The View’s Elizabeth Hasselbeck is possibly the biggest misogynist on conventional network TV (i.e. not counting O’Reilly, Robertson, etc).
Lesbian or not, I can easily see it being assumed that Ellen would stick to the easy stuff in this interview. Especially if the idea was that McCain would be appearing to support civil unions or make namby-pamby overtures. From what I can see of this appearance, Ellen totally squelched that idea.
Oh, and regarding:
but McCain makes himself available to them every day, and lets them ask as many questions as they want. That’s unheard of for a major candidate.
That’s because the Democrats are busy campaigning, whereas McCain has a blank dance card between now and the convention. He has nothing better to do than hold press conferences (especially considering that he can’t fundraise worth a damn). Not to mention that, as a known quantity, there’s not really a whole lot that needs asking. Add all that to the right-leaning media’s tendency to lob softballs at those who hold conservative views, and of course McCain’s going to meet with the press every day.
Lesbian or not, I can easily see it being assumed that Ellen would stick to the easy stuff in this interview. Especially if the idea was that McCain would be appearing to support civil unions or make namby-pamby overtures.
Except that she grilled Clinton in much the same manner not too long ago and even asked her if she thought any candidate could be unabashedly for gay marriage and remain viable. McCain’s people must’ve known this before he went on. She was a bit easier on Clinton, though.
Here’s the video of Clinton on Ellen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS-iVY3mmxg&NR=1
The question comes up about fifty seconds in.
Another reason why McCain shouldn’t worry about America going the way of the Romans. Between the Republic and the Empire Rome was a great power for nearly 1000 years. I’d be shocked (well, dead, but shocked and dead) if America is a great power for a quarter of that.
Ellen is the anti-Dennis Miller.
Funny, cool and courageous. And much much more successful. yay!
Another reason why McCain shouldn’t worry about America going the way of the Romans. Between the Republic and the Empire Rome was a great power for nearly 1000 years. I’d be shocked (well, dead, but shocked and dead) if America is a great power for a quarter of that.
You really started as a great power in the early part of the 20th century, about WWI.
I can present an argument that you reached your apogee in 1998, and you’re now on the downward slope. 250 years is optimistic.
I’d go even further than that, PiatoR, although it depends a little bit on exactly how you define the term “great power.” I think we started to see the plateau of tangible, meaningful American power towards the end of the Vietnam War, and it started on the downslope right around the time of the Ollie North trial.
Sadly, I think that a century from now, the Clinton years are going to be seen as nothing more than an ever-so-slight blip on the inexorable downward curve that is the future of America.
I actually wrote a blog post about exactly this sometime last year, but I’m too lazy to comb through my archives to find it.
Oh, yeah, and I’ve always liked Ellen, but she’s become even more awesome since the CA ruling. She really nailed McPain to the wall in that clip.
I’d go even further than that, PiatoR, although it depends a little bit on exactly how you define the term “great power.” I think we started to see the plateau of tangible, meaningful American power towards the end of the Vietnam War, and it started on the downslope right around the time of the Ollie North trial.
Actually, I was thinking of a specific economic event, where your trade deficit made a certain figure flip from positive to negative.
The only thing I hold against Ellen is that when she had the “coming out” season of her show, she turned Bruce Campbell character into the intolerant guy, which meant that at the end of the season, he was off the show.
He probably had other commitments to other Sam Raimi projects that meant he had to leave the show, but I was still mad to not get my Bruce Campbell fix every week.
PiatoR:
Yeah, that’s what I meant about how it depends on exactly how you define “great power.” The trade deficit is just one indicator of one aspect of geopolitical power, one that I have a hunch lags behind some of the other facets.
I do hope that we won’t end up going the way of the Romans.
What, lead in the drinking water?
I don’t know how you can bring yourself to read the Freepers.