I just got back from the Talking Points Memo page (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/) and what they've got there could take the McCain campaign into uncharted waters of campaign goofs. As others at this site have already noted, he tells a joke that includes the idea that he's thinking about entering his wife, Cindy, into the Sturgis "Miss Buffalo Chip" beauty contest. When some bright youngster working at an MSM gets a lot at video of that contest, somebody in the McCain campaign is gonna have a bad day.
Here's how I think that's gonna go - below the fold
Scene One, Act One:
The Straight Talk Bus, headed to the Sturgis Biker Rally.
McCain is in center frame surrounded by his staff.
They're fishing around for ideas and one of the brighter ones notices that the biker's have a beauty contest. He comes up with a line about how McCain is thinking about entering Cindy in the contest so that she will be first woman ever to be both the winner of the Miss Buffalo Chip contest and First Lady.
Everyone laughs and agrees that it is a killer joke. It showcases the gorgeous Cindy. It highlights her future role as a first lady and he gets to tell a cute joke. They start thinking about the viral video that will come out of this. The biker boys giving Cindy a big thumbs up and roaring for McCain to be president. Somebody says this will outdo the Obama Germany videos. Somebody else says, yeah, and tells McCain to reference Obama in Germany with a remark about how he'd rather hear 50,000 Harleys than 200,000 Germans.
They chuckle some more and McCain says 'let's git'er done.' Everybody laughs some more and the camera cuts to the Straight Talk Bus heading on down the highway.
Scene Two, Act One:
The Straight Talk Bus, headed to who knows where...
The mood is glum. McCain is again surrounded by his staff. One of them says that at least this isn't as bad as Bob Dole's campaign song, Dole Man sung to the tune Soul Man. Another one says that there was no way somebody could know that a biker beauty contest worked like that. Somebody says the PUMAs weren't gonna vote for us anyway, this just gives them an excuse.
Finally, McCain looks up and says, "Oops, we did it again."