Sunday, April 20, 2008

A Scandal Sure to Determine the Presidency

It's rare for the spinsters at Pandagon to amuse me, but this post on Cindy McCain's recipes made me giggle.

According to Matthew Yglesias, the "Cindy's recipes" section of John McCain's presidential website contains--brace yourself for it--recipes from the Food Network!!!!!!!

I know, I know. That a highly accomplished woman--businesswoman, philanthropist--wouldn't be dishing up homemade lasagna every night is a real shocker. And even though, like Barack Obama borrowing a speech from Gov. Deval Patrick, the error has been attributed to a staffer, that doesn't stop Amanda Marcotte from carping and sniping.

First thought: Hey, what if Food Network recipes really are her favorite? Just kidding. I had to blog this because I’m sort of surprised that Matt didn’t bring up the obvious answer to the question of why Cindy McCain probably doesn’t have recipes to put up on the site: I doubt she does much cooking, if any at all.

I mean, think about it. McCain is the daughter of an extremely wealthy man who made his money through a beer distribution company. In fact, if you read Glenn Greenwald’s book, you’ll see there’s good reason to believe that part of the reason that John McCain aggressively courted her while still married to his first wife was that her wealth and connections would help get him into politics. And by “aggressively court”, I mean “most likely had an adulterous affair”, because he did, after all, marry Cindy within a month of divorcing his first wife. But this is a long way of saying that Cindy McCain is probably someone whose wealth means that she doesn’t really have to do much cooking for herself, and thus wouldn’t have favorite recipes. Not, I must stress, that I would hold that against her. There is no reason a woman should have to cook if she doesn’t want to.

Shorter Amanda: This is a stupid, sexist "scandal," but I'm desperate and believe sexism is good when it benefits my side.

I hate to point out to Amanda, who is probably still eating her Spaghettios out of the can, that, yes, it is possible a staffer asked Cindy, "What are your favorite recipes?" and she replied, "Well, I make X, Y, and Z, but don't really have recipes," and the staffer went and found *real* recipes for those dishes. And as someone who actually does cook for my family on a nightly basis, I can testify that using the Betty Crocker cookbook qualifies as *my* recipes.

What's amusing is the amount of cattiness Amanda can always pack into such a small space. She has a real talent for crassness that is unparalleled in the blogosphere. I mean, who else could go from "the recipes were from the Food Network" to "John McCain married her for her money" in less than a paragraph?

Tackier still is her assertion that she doesn't care whether Cindy McCain cooks or not. In truth, she does care because, as her commenters point out, Barbara Bush's homey grandma image put her head and shoulders above Hillary Clinton in the likability ratings. But the idea that a few recipes on her husband's campaign page are going to outweigh the gaffes of the Democrat candidate? That's quite a stretch.

Apropos of nothing (other than yet another example of the classlessness of the average Pandagon commenter), I have to print this comment from the same thread:

Cindy McSame cooking? Dear me, just look at her surgery. Anywhere near the stove and she would melt like the witch from OZ.

McSame is pandering to the lower classes. They all cook and watch children and barely finish the local paper. So, he panders to their lacks.

Since when is cooking gender related? Condi Rice is a fantabulous shoe shopper and token, should we assume her skill set extends to culinary artistry?

Naw, they aren't elitist at all!