-of me ever voting for Mcain was gone the moment I read he actually LISTENED to anything that Tom Coburn had to say.

What a freak.

Don't hate us, just ignore us. Look to someone and somewhere else to fix your intractable problems, because we honestly have no earthly idea what we are doing or why.

The moron does not have a clue about what is going on in Africa. Culturally, it is a serious struggle to make men adopt protection when they have sexual intercourse. It is not considered manly. Unfortunately, those men are likely to contract AIDS from prostitutes (who are not informed either) and pass it along to their wives and the children that they are bearing or will bear.

Once again, the ugly American raises its hideous head. Because he/she does not comprehend an alien culture.

McCain would be better off launching a program to combat AIDS in Africa, starting with a solid education in prevention.

we can't punt these right-whackos who oppose contraception out of government fast enough.

What the HELL has happened to this country? When are the 50 million voters who DO think contraception is a pretty good idea going to have a say in how our tax money is spent in distributing birth-control devices to those who need them?

If H.L. Mencken were alive today, he would not believe what's happening to us...not to mention Mark Twain...surely they thought we'd be further along than this. On the other hand...maybe they wouldn't be surprised at all.

A pox on them all! Goddam idiot americans..and worse, the pandering, cowardly, imbecilic scum-bags who represent them. Phooey.

Interesting, this mention of a "magic bullet" -- it refers Dr. Paul Ehrlich's famous quest for an agent that would kill only the syphilis bacterium (and other infectious agents) in the human body, without harming anything else. Before the discovery of penicillin, the treatments of choice for syphilis were inhaling or applying mercury -- pleasant, huh?

Dr. Ehrlich did perfect an arsenic-based drug, Arsphenamine, that was the first really effective treatment for syphilis. Long after his death, a real "magic bullet" finally appeared -- penicillin.

How much difference is there, really, between condom use as a means to avoid AIDS infection (which so-called conservatives disdain), and the use of penicillin to cure syphilis? Another more contemporary example would be the HPV vaccine proposed for young girls -- does removing the fear of infection or cancer from sexual encounters lead to MORE sexual encounters?

If the answer is believed to be "yes", then those so-called conservatives oppose it. No condoms. No HPV vaccine. And I guess, to be consistent, they ought to say, no penicillin for syphilis sufferers.

Don't treat genital herpes either. Let those who suffer from any sexually transmitted disease "lie in the bed they made", so to speak. Let their body parts rot off, let them never be with another human sexually, let them go insane or DIE. That's the moral thing to do, for sure. It's what God tells us is right and proper -- any other course is IMMORAL.

Right.

I couldn't tell which was more baffeling, the fact that the reporter helped him, or what the reporter said, "There's no Magic Bullet."

I don't know. A piece of rubber that keeps the virus from transmiting from one person to the next... sounds like a magic bullet to me.

McLame is a by the book republikan toady, and the book says no contraceptive devices 'cause Gawd said so. So, screw the Africans, or let them screw one another, and let the aids fall where it may. It's the republlikan way.

The thing that jumped out at me in this story is the bit were Third Reporter jumps in to help McCain answer the question, help him critique the use of condoms to spread aids. WTF????? That's the whole problem with pool reporters in a nutshell. They WANT McCain to look great - they WANT him to make it to the end so they can have the story at the finish line. How often does this happens? How often do reports jump in to answer other reporters' questions when the candidate is struggling? Does it only happen with McCain cuz he's such a reporter darling?

"I think that funding contraception to prevent millions of African's from dying of AIDS is a great idea, but if I say so the right wing fundamentalists won't vote for me so I'm not going to admit it in public and I'm not going to support it if I'm voted in as President".

Did he really say "I have to find out my position on it"? Shouldn't he know that? It is, after all, *his* position.

But keep remembering how I actually had enthusiasm for McCain a year or so ago and how betrayed I felt even though I'm an independant, and not a republican. I should probably stick to dems I gues.

has emerged, which will probably be the new normal in politics...

The candidates appear to be barely informed on their own issues, they are so scared of flip flopping that they equivocate for a few minutes (they must probably forget each day that we have the internet now) before stopping, quasi retracting, then moving on to allow their communications people to "issue" a statement.

Hilary and Obama did the same this week when asked about Gen Pace's anti gay comments, and this is what many will continue to do because, for now, it appears safe.

Dean had to do this repeatedly

Maybe the communications directors should be running for office...or maybe we should consider those who are working for the candidate and not just the candidate, either way, look forward to a full year of half statements, clarifications of the most banal manner and the firing of some comm directors....

This comes from a former fan who supported McCain in 2000 against Dubya, and while holding my nose, actually registered for the first time as a Republican so I could vote for him in the Ohio primary that year -- it cannot BE any more transparent. I have NO confusion at all after this little incident.

It isn't even debatable that a minimally coherent and competent person would KNOW that he himself has "...consistently voted agaist taxpayer funded contraception programs." If Sen. McCain needs his staff to "research" this point, then he's absolutely forfeited any right to run for President again. He's lost his memory and/or mind, and shouldn't be casting votes in the Senate due to mental infirmity, let alone go out in public to campaign for higher office!