Meghan McCain's "Dirty Sexy Politics" Dishes on the 2008 Campaign

Meghan McCain’s new book Dirty Sexy Politics details the nearly two years she spent on her father John McCain’s campaign, what the Republican Party means to her, and the direction she’d like to see it go in.

But Imus didn’t know any of this, because he didn’t read it. Dirty Sexy Politics contains no index, he explained, “So I couldn’t look up to see if I was in it." 

The book, McCain told Imus, was a labor of love. “I’d follow my father into hell,” she said. “I just believe in everything he does so completely.”

She frequently questioned the ethics of some of the people surrounding her father during the campaign. “You wonder where someone’s loyalty lies when you’re in a meeting, and ten minute later it’s leaked on CNN,” said McCain.

Fresh out of college in 2007, McCain, now 25, traveled around the country with her father as he ran for President, detailing each day’s events with photos, comments, and music at a website called McCain-Blogette. She loved the work, but not everyone running the campaign agreed it should continue.

“As the campaign got bigger, people didn’t want me to take as many pictures, or write as many things,” she said.

Her book is similar to the tome Game Change released earlier this year, but unlike its authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, McCain didn’t do any post-campaign interviews, relying instead on her own memories of the two years she spent on the road. Like the time she found out an hour before the rest of the world that her father’s running mate would be a little-known Governor from Alaska.

“Like the rest of the world, I didn’t know who Sarah Palin was,” said McCain, who was hoping her dad would instead choose Senator Joe Lieberman, a man she knows well and loves. As for reports that she cried when told it was Palin, McCain blamed her reaction on the intensity of the moment.

“I was told an hour beforehand, ‘Her name’s Sarah Palin, she has a bunch of kids, you’re going to love it, it’s going to be fine,’” she recalled. “And I’m a girl, I was 23 at the time, and I started crying.”

Despite all the attention given Sarah Palin, McCain believes Obama-mania took over the country and the media in 2008.  “It was a popularity contest,” she said. “The media was obsessed with Obama playing basketball, and having Jay-Z on his iPod. I fear for elections in the sense that you sort of have to be a celebrity to be president. I think it’s very un-American, and it’s scary.”

A devout Republican, McCain is simultaneously pro-life and pro-gay marriage, positions she thinks will embody the future of the Republican Party. “Gay marriage really is a non-issue for people my age,” she said. McCain also thinks the legalization of gay marriage in America is a question of when and not if. 

The perceived shortage of Republicans her age is more a problem of image than anything else, in her view. “I have friends who have come to it as they’ve gotten older,” she said of Republicanism. “I think public relations-wise, we don’t have good people out there necessarily representing us.”

Predictably not enthralled with President Obama, McCain, admittedly “the most biased person ever,” believes he has “an absolute incapacity to connect with people.” She agreed with Imus that Obama is not maliciously screwing things up, but she added, “Then, I thought he was way too inexperienced. Now, I think it really shows.”

As if these two weren’t getting along well enough, it came to Imus’s attention that McCain is friends with Two-Foot Fred, the midget who tags along with John Rich.

“He can pick up a chick like a magnet,” McCain said of Two-Foot Fred. “He’ll just say, ‘Hey, I’m Fred, what’s going on, want to sit on my scooter?’ And then 20 seconds later they’re driving off.”

Having made it through the interview, McCain confessed this appearance was kind of a big deal for her, since many of the father figures in her life are obsessed with the I-Man.

“I know,” said Imus. “And that’s unfortunate.”

-Julie Kanfer