Meghan McCain is upset that Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman are being called “bad girls” for recent revelations, asking, “Are they being forced to put up with a media witch hunt because they are both women and Republicans?”
That’s about as deep as it goes in McCain’s rather lukewarm defense of Fiorina, who was caught on tape disparaging Barbara Boxer’s hair, and Whitman, who shoved and later gave a six-figure settlement to a subordinate in 2007. Both campaigned for McCain’s father, and this is the most she can muster on their behalf:
I found both women to be hardworking, and both have a very dry sense of humor, something I always like in other people. Is this enough to make them a good governor and senator of California? Of course not. But I think these women genuinely want to change things for their state and believe that they can effect positive change through their impressive experience in the work force.
Well, most people running for office want to change something. The question is what and to what end, and who benefits. But McCain isn’t so interested in that. She’s more concerned with saying that what Fiorina said isn’t such a big deal, which is somewhat persuasive, and parroting as many PR euphemisms as possible around the Whitman incident, which isn’t.
“I am sure if a man had been accused of shoving a subordinate, the reaction would have been more lenient,” McCain ventures. This is perhaps the weakest use of the “what if it were a man” exercise in recent memory. Actually, if Whitman were a man, shoving a subordinate, particularly a woman, would have been seen as a more grave example of assault, fairly or unfairly.
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