Straight Talk McCain?

The latest from the bumbling McCain campaign--covered by the Carpetbagger report and by BarbinMD at Daily Kos--shows just how much trouble McCain is in. Here's what happened at a Q&A with reporters:

Q: “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?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? 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. [Speaking to Press Secretary Brian Jones], would you find out what my position is on contraception — I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

Q: “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?”

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) “Get me [Sen. Tom Coburn’s] thing, ask [senior adviser John 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.”

There are only two options here:
1) McCain is either too senile to respond quickly and too aged and out-of-touch to have given these issues serious thought or to have learned about them; or
2) he's absolutely petrified at what the religious right will do to him if he doesn't answer just how they want, right in lockstep with Dobson.

Either way, it sure as heck isn't "Straight Talk." Politically, McCain is a man lost at sea, without a flag to put on his mast, drifting whichever way the wind blows--and with increasingly out-of-date maps.

If Dems are looking ahead to the general election, I'd suggest we target Giuliani, Romney, and Fred Thompson. McCain's through.