Meghan McCain visited the District’s Jewish Community Center Thursday night to talk about the contents of her newest book, but first had to get beyond the title. “Yeah, it still makes me laugh, it makes me laugh when serious people say it,” she said. “America you sexy … you sexy … can we say this?” she said in her best NPR radio voice. “We never thought the publisher would go for it, we never thought booksellers would sell it, but there’s a popular diet book called ‘Skinny Bitch,’ which apparently paved the way for this book,” she laughed.
The book title is “America, You Sexy Bitch,” and brings together McCain and comedian Michael Ian Black. The duo, one Republican and one Democrat, road trip around the country talking politics with each other and with the people they meet. “I taught her how to love, she taught me how to love Bud Light,” Black joked, via video, of the excursion. But it was actually alcohol that got them into their first big argument. “We’re drinking whiskey and he brings up the war in Iraq,” McCain recalled, explaining that Black had mocked her for saying that freedom isn’t free. “And when I’m drinking I get really patriotic … I don’t know why it is, most girls get drunk and make out, Meghan gets drunk and wants to say the Pledge of Allegiance.” The co-authors also disagreed over the importance of politicians’ personal lives. “If you’re going to cheat on your wife, you’ll probably cheat in business and you’ll probably cheat in office,” McCain explained. “And we got in a big fight about it at the Clinton library,” she said to big laughs.
Besides packing the program with zingers, McCain also noted that her experience reporting in Washington was one that journalists know too well. “My favorite thing about meeting all these politicians was getting the email afterward saying that was all off the record and is not allowed in your book,” she sighed.
