Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Meghan McCain opens mouth, says things



You know what's interesting about "The View?"
And before you say "not a god damn thing," I'm definitely not saying that watching the View would be at all interesting. You couldn't pay me to watch the View. (counterpoint: Yeah, you probably could.)
What's interesting about the existence of the View is that it's such a perfect microcosm of American politics as seen by the media types. It showcases the entire spectrum of political opinion, ranging from center-right to slightly-left of center! And it thinks it's doing important work.

And another interesting thing is that, on the lib/Dem side, you have these women who have earned everything they have the hard way. Women like Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O'Donnell who fought their way up through the hardscrabble world of comedy clubs succeeding on talent and drive. On the conservative side you have the women of whom you have only heard because of the men in their lives. Like Abby Huntsman, whose main qualification is being the daughter of  former governor and presidential campaign footnote Jon Huntsman. Or Meghan Mc Cain, of whom you have only heard because her father was famous (and whose father was only famous because of his father's influential position. Check out the Dollop episode on the Maverick.) or Elizabeth Hasselbeck who got sort of famous by marrying a third-tier NFL quarterback.


Anyway, that brings us to Meghan McCain's most recent word-twaddle.



Meghan McCain Is Kind of 'Grateful' Trump Is President: Otherwise, 'I Don’t Think I Would Be Successful' on The View

Ooookay, I see we've expanded the definition of the word "successful to include. . . whatever it is Meghan McCain does?



“If Trump wasn’t president, I don’t think I would be successful here,” the View co-host said in a new book on the show, Ladies Who Punch, which was published last week.
“For that reason, I guess I’m grateful that Trump is president,” McCain continued. “It’s just made my job a little easier because I know why it happened.”



Yeah, we all know why it happened, Meg. You're not special. Hillary Clinton wrote an entire book on how it happened. (Spoiler alert, it was everyone's fault but hers.)


Still, McCain, 34, told author Ramin Setoodeh (her friend and former editor) that she didn’t think the president — an unusually polarizing politician — was the reason The View had drawn strong ratings.
“That I don’t concede to. Everyone is like, ‘Oh, you’re popular because Trump.’ I think everyone is more interested in politics,” she said. “Young women are different now than when I was younger. Everyone is involved, civically engaged, and informed. I think that’s also why the show is doing so well.”

Ouch! That may be the saddest thing I've ever heard. If people are becoming more politically aware and engaged and are turning to the View for, what, political insight? that is as scathing an indictment of the American body politic as I've ever read.


“I think the reason I worked and other Republicans didn’t is because I’m the first real Republican that they hired,” McCain said.


Oh dear God.
How in the world are you the first "real Republican" on the View? You know they had (maybe still have?) Anna Navarro on the View, right? You may remember her from the time she spent working for the presidential campaign of. . . oh, gosh, who was it again. . . oh yeah, JOHN MCCAIN!


And she knows how that sounds: “Yes, I think I’m more of a Republican than Elisabeth is.” 

Yeah, I wouldn't brag about that. Also, whatever happened to your whole "I'm a moderate" schtick? Because if you are anything resembling a moderate, you are not "more of a Republican" than anybody.


Speaking with Setoodeh, she could hardly name other conservative co-hosts before her: “Nicolle Wallace changed parties. Candace Cameron was a social conservative. I don’t remember the other people who were on here.”



Oh my God. "I'm the only real Republican who has ever been on this show and by the way, I have no idea who else has been on this show" is pretty emblematic of the kind of thought-provoking journalism we have come to expect from America's number one fail-daughter.

And, as to Candace Cameron-Brulee, being a "social conservative" is pretty much the number one prerequisite for being a "real Republican." Do you know anything about your own party?

“He [Trump] knows it and I know it and all of you know it — he will never be a great man,” Meghan said on the show last month. “My father was his kryptonite in life, he’s his kryptonite in death.”

Okay, so you don't know what kryptonite is either, I guess.
Your father had no effect on Donald tRump. He trashed your father on television and it cost him exactly nothing. The electoral base of your father's own party sided 100% with il Douche over your father - some after tut-tutting and tsk-tsking him a bit. In death, your father is having no effect on anyone. And I'm not trying to disrespect your father. And you're right about President McCheese never being a great man. I'mm just saying that Hair Furor's utter lack of greatness has nothing to do with your father. At all.


Describing her own politics, Meghan has described herself as “a conservative first and foremost.”
“I’m a small government, America-first conservative,” she said on The View in February. “What is being presented to me on the alternative side is too radical for me.”

Oh, sure. I get that. The thought of, say, single-payer healthcare is frighteningly "radical. That's probably why it is only done in Canada.
And the UK.
And France.
And Taiwan.
And the Netherlands.
And Scandinavia.
And South Korea.
And Australia.

Yeah, it's far too crazy an idea for us to ever try here!
And taxing the rich? That's something that only a radical like Fidel Castro would do.
Or Dwight Eisenhower.
Or Woodrow Wilson.
Or John F. Kennedy.
Or Richard Nixon.

Yeah, I can definitely see how the "alternative side" is wayyyy too radical for you. I mean, what's next, a minimum wage that people can live on?


Meghan told Setoodeh she was somewhat reluctant to take The View job, given its history of getting rid of hosts who aren’t working out. But her father “convinced me to do it.” 

Transcript of John McCain convincing Meghan to take the View job:

Jeezus, Meghan! You've got to get a job! You have to do something with your life! You can't just sleep on my couch all day!


“I hope it’s in my obituary that I was the first Republican since Elisabeth Hasselbeck to survive more than one season on The View,” she said. “It’s one of my proudest moments.”
That includes her noted verbal altercations with fellow panelist Joy Behar.
“I love sparring with her,” Meghan said in Ladies Who Punch. “We’re like boxers; we punch gloves and then we’re out.”
"We punch gloves."
"We punch gloves and then we're out."
So, I guess add boxing to the list of things you know nothing about.

Yeah, this seems like a meritocracy, all right. Clearly you've earned your job being a television talking person.