John McCain has been both lauded and criticized for being a maverick with his occasional digressions from party talking points.
Everyone knows this presidential hopeful is a straight shooter.
Ask him a question and he’ll give you a no-nonsense direct answer, that is, until you ask him a question that will compromise his courtship with America’s fundamentalist Christians.
For any candidate, pandering to that sort of crowd usually leads to something ignorant being included in the candidate’s campaign platform. McCain is no exception, and thanks to his “straight” talking, the cost of kissing Pat Robertson’s ring has exposed what some of that old time religion can bring to a campaign.
A reporter following McCain on the campaign trail had the temerity to ask one of those taboo questions the “family values” crowd deems inappropriate. The exchange occurred on, of all places, a bus named the “Straight Talk Express.”
“What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?” the reporter asked.
“Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy,” McCain answered after a pause.
As an aside, supporting any of our current president’s policies isn’t exactly good strategy for getting into the Oval Office.
The reporter persisted. “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?” the reporter asked. “You’ve stumped me,” McCain said.
“I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it,” the reporter asked.
“Are we on the Straight Talk Express?” McCain asked, laughing. “I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was . I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”
The reporter pressed on, hoping to elicit some of that famous straight talk.
“But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: ‘No, we’re not going to distribute them,’ knowing that?” the reporter asked.
“Get me Coburn’s thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn’s paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I’ve never gotten into these issues before,” McCain said.
(McCain was referring to U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Weaver is a campaign aide.)
Now that was some straight talking.
I hate to break it to McCain, but the majority of students on this and most other campuses, including the ones that identify themselves as Christian, do not practice chastity prior to tying the knot, so why not encourage students to cloak such indiscretion with a contraceptive?
There is nothing wrong with teaching abstinence along with conventional common sense sex education (like how to use a condom), but depending on abstinence education alone is simply imbecilic.
Most people are going to have sex before marriage whether Jesus likes it or not. That’s just reality.
Sadly, McCain has decided that getting the votes of the geocentric masses is more important than funding programs that reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, the abortions resulting from them and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, like HIV.

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