Meghan McCain is Convinced by Trump; Sticking with Mitt; and Still Lookin' For Love

Meghan McCain’s father, the esteemed Senator John McCain, “goes crazy,” she said, every time Imus invites Meghan on his program. “Your father is crazy, by the way,” Imus corrected his guest. “I love him to death but the dude is crazy.”
 
Last week, Meghan interviewed Donald Trump for The Daily Beast, an encounter Imus charmingly referred to as “kissy-face.”
 
“I’m not a journalist,” Meghan protested. “I’m a columnist and a commentator, and working on being a media personality. And I’m not mean—if you need a hard-hitting interview, I will be the first to say, don’t go to me.”
 
Her goal with Trump was, instead, to ask him “real” questions. “I don’t like asking people uncomfortable questions because I know what it feels like on the other end,” she said. But Trump didn’t want to answer anything. “He was like, ‘I love you, and I love your family.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, thank you!’”
 
She believes the interview garnered so much attention because she actually took Trump seriously, asking him whether he and his family were ready for the intense spotlight that comes with running for president.
 
“He assured me this isn’t a joke,” Meghan said. “Maybe I’m being naïve. He assured me he is going to run, and this is going to happen.”
 
It’s fascinating, in her view, that Trump continues to dominate the headlines while other potential Republican candidates for 2012 are scarecely mentioned. “The average person does not know who Tim Pawlenty is,” Meghan observed.
 
Trump is decidedly vague on many of his positions, like that the U.S. should just go into Iraq and take all the oil. “It’s a little nebulous,” Meghan said, and predicted Trump would have problems in the debates, where candidates must get into “the nitty-gritty” of an issue.
 
Imus remains unconvinced that Trump will run for President—“unless he does”—namely because he won’t be able to stand the scrutiny.
 
“I think the media has gotten completely out of control, especially when it comes to Republicans,” Meghan said. She worries particularly about Republican women, many of whom who tell her they don’t want get involved in politics at all, lest they be judged harshly for their appearance or their lifestyle.
 
To her credit, Meghan is holding steady in her support of Mitt Romney for president in 2012. “I think he’s going to be a slow starter, but I think once he really starts campaigning he’s going to get a lot of attention,” she said.
 
That Romney, as Governor of Massachusetts, instituted a health care plan there that closely resembles Obama-care won’t matter as much as people think it will, in her view. “I think he has so many other positive things he has done,” she said. “He’s a brilliant business man.”
 
As for the men in her own life, Meghan told Imus she is “like, horribly single,” and goes one disastrous date after another. In his best attempt to play matchmaker, Imus wondered if country singer Jason Aldean was still on the market.
 
Informed that Aldean is, in fact, married with kids, Imus said, “I wonder if he’s really serious about it.”
 
Great thinking, I-Man.
 
-Julie Kanfer