The religious right will love this: The religious right will love this: John and Cindy McCain's 23-year old daughter, Meghan, the McCainBlogette, has taken to the pages of GQ to proclaim her love for all things, er, not the least bit culturally conservative.
Of the MTV show "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila," Meghan gushed, “It's a bisexual-dating show! It's hilarious!” Meghan raved about burlesque stripper Dita Von Teese, saying, "I love the way she dresses. If I could look like that all day, I would." (Von Teese, by the way, used to be married to Marilyn Manson, he of androgynous goth infamy.) About Barack Obama, she admitted, "universally women find him attractive. Whatever.” Then Megan straight-out rejected Mike Huckabee as her dad's running mate:
That's not going to happen. I don't think they'd be a good match for a lot of reasons and am not even sure if that's what Huckabee's going for, anyway. I think he wants to be the head of the evangelical movement.
Megan also told the reporter, Greg Veis, that she's into "metrosexual," "yuppie," "journalist" types like himself. Was she flirting? She followed with the following advice to any men who might be interested in her: "If you’re an investment banker, don’t hit on me. You can quote me. I’m not interested.”
Meghan even admitted to voting for John Kerry in 2004, after George W. Bush's team leveraged dirty tricks to push her dad out of the presidential race in 2000. But the biggest shocker was that she refused to identify as a Republican, saying, "I’m an Independent. Socially liberal, economically conservative."
Veis concludes that the McCain campaign has given Meghan the freedom to speak candidly in an attempt at making the 71-year old candidate seem younger to moderate swing voters. Do you think this strategy works, or will it just further alienate the GOP social conservative base? It's worth pointing out, of course, that McCain's positions on social issues have little to do with his daughter's “socially liberal” predilections. He's firmly anti-marriage equality, anti-Roe v. Wade, pro-abstinence education...and the list goes on and on. Meghan, though, seems like a decent girl who, as Amanda Marcotte points out, seems desperate to bust out of the constraints of GOP femininity.
--Dana Goldstein
