I'M NOT SURPRISED THAT THE GOP BASE IS WORRIED ABOUT HOW TO BEAT THE "BITCH." HILLARY WILL BE A FORMIDABLE OPPONENT AND HARD TO BEAT IN THE GENERAL. WHAT THEY ARE NOT WORRIED ABOUT IS HOW TO BEAT THE "NIGGER." THEY KNOW HOW TO DO THAT. FROM REAGAN'S KICKOFF IN MISSISSIPPI TO WILLIE HORTON TO "CALL ME HAROLD" IN TENNESEE, THE GOP HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY USING THE "SOUTHERN" STRATEGY FOR SOME TIME AND WILL HAVE NO COMPUNCTION ABOUT USING IT IN 2008. SO, ALTHOUGH THE REPUBLICAN HONCHOS CLAIM TO WANT TO RUN AGAINST "POLARIZING" HILLARY, TRUTH IS THEY'D MUCH RATHER FACE OBAMA. WE'VE COME A LONG WAY ON RACE JUST IN MY LIFETIME (I'M 60) BUT, SADLY, THERE IS STILL A LONG WAY TO GO!

These are two completely unrelated things. The MoveOn ad was distributed nationally and publicly while the "bitch" comment came from a citizen, one person asking one question in a small, social gathering.

To imply as you do that one is the same as the other is retarded. Even now that this woman's statement has become national news it does not stand to reason that McCain has to repudiate her for her stupid remark. It is not she who is at fault here. It is the media that aired the comment and is now stoking it and milking it for its infotainment value.

I am STILL astounded by the LACK of attention this has received. Unlike some of the commentators here, I think we should hear more, much more about this. The problem is, as I am beginning to see, that most of the media commentators who are brushing this off are MEN! White men. Do you suppose thay would treat this a casually if the women had asked, "How do we beat the N****R?" The word she actually used is just as offensive to me, as a woman. McCain is toast with nearly every woman who heard his ungentlemanly acceptance of the use of the word, in his presence.

Shame on him and anyone else who shrugged this off. I'm sickened and I am not a big Clinton supporter.

Please let us not forget the foul mouth asshole who is the real John McCain. One can almost see him laughing his ass off as tells his fellow pilot/jocks his new joke about the real parentage of Chelsea Clinton.

Christ, picking on a 13-year-old. That after dumping his first wife to marry for money and whatever else the straight-talker was scraping his knees for at the time.

When one sees him hugging Bush after what those freaks did to him and his second wife and their children in South Carolina, you are seeing the real straight talk express.

What an ass.

It is absolutely amazing that politicians seem to forget that this is the age of video and instant replay.

In this country where too many citizens seem to have the attention span of a gerbil, even they are beginning to understand that they are being played.

Remember when he agreed to hold a sign that one of his supporters was carrying that said "Say no to Obama, Osama, and Chelsea's Moma [sic]"? Funny, I don't remember that getting as much publicity as the MoveOn "Petraeus-Betray-Us" ad either. Apparently smearing a white, male military officer is more unacceptable than. . .

In fact, I hope he embraces it. It think we will see more of this kind of comment and probably from some of the Republican candidates themselves, who have good reason to resent having to run against a woman.

I just wish he would retract that statement where he called Petraeus honorable. Petraeus is a tool of GWB.

You don't castigate your supporters. He answered the question as if it were a serious one and did not indicate agreement with the use of the term. Its one of those damned if you do and damned if you don't moments. He might not use that word, but other people will, so he gets tarred with that brush.

Of course, I think the woman asking the question was probably Dick Cheney in drag.

Do they ever do it themselves, when their supporters go off the deep end? Hardly. And it happens with much greater frequency. Pat Robertson alone could outstrip the entire Democratic side of the equation.

Really, if anyone on the Dem side had any vision whatever, I'd expect nonstop vilification of the Repubs from pillar to post. And when someone says something extreme, back him or her, and urge whoever it was only to say it again.

The Hilton Head Island Packet identifies the woman as Linda Burke of Wexford, SC.

that women are still 2nd class citizens as far as the Republicans are concerned.

He watched his own wife take a pounding from the Rove machine in South Carolina and didn't complain much. You expect him to defend Hillary Clinton?

more than anything else, to see a man once considered courageous and honorable reduced to craven grasping for political advantage. A man who stood up to his captors for five years, who stood up for his fellow POW's, cannot find it in his heart to stand up to his supporters to defend his female opponent against a particularly nasty insult--because there's no political gain for him in the GOP primary by doing so. John McCain has no honor left.

Tim, why are you wasting your time with this? As if any candidate is going to admonish his or her supporters at a rally. Certainly you can find SOMETHING of substance to cover, can't you?

You're winning the support of rabid right-wingers at the expense of the moderate Democrats and Independents who supported you in 2000 when the rabid right-wingers were viciously maligning you.

Being a POW in Vietnam couldn't break you, but the American political campaigning process could. Wow.

I think I've discovered a new "torture-lite" technique to use against enemy non-combatants.

"Straight Talk" is what I expect to get when I buy a used car.

lost his "center" and became the "man" he is today following the 2000 election cycle where he found out that integrity, honesty, and ideas mean little or nothing to the electorate. He probably went home, took a shower, and took a long look in the mirror and was hit by a neocon epihany: "I'm not going to sit here and feel sorry for myself! I'm going to get back on that horse and get even. Yep. No more Mr. Nice Guy for me. Why that bitch..."