McCain Jokes About Killing Iranians With Cigarettes

You know, let’s set aside the obvious first reaction of revulsion that a candidate for president would joke about lung cancer and emphysema. Let’s think about the context in which the joke was made:

Presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be “a way of killing ’em.”

McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that U.S. exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W. Bush’s term in office despite hostility between the two states.

A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according to an Associated Press analysis of seven years of U.S. trade figures.

“Maybe that’s a way of killing ’em,” McCain said to reporters during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh. “I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years,” he added, laughing.

He declined further comment on the report.

What does it say about the maturity, intelligence, thoughtfulness, and sense of dignity of a man who would answer a reporter’s question about why the Bush administration has increased its cigarette sales tenfold to a country that administration is threatening to launch a war against, by saying that maybe the United States is trying to kill that country’s people? That’s not the response of a U.S. president. That’s the response of a 6th grader who can’t answer the question in class because he hasn’t studied. Is that who we want the president to be? A 6th grader who doesn’t do his homework?

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