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Live-Blogging the McCains on ‘The View’

John and Cindy McCain will appear together on The View shortly. They’ve both been on before, but it’s always interesting to watch a real-life couple as it gets devoured by the crazy coffee klatch. In case you can’t watch in your office (what, you don’t have a TV at your desk? Do you work in print or something?), we’ll be live-blogging all the important bits.

11:18 a.m.: McCain comes out alone at first, and lightly hugs all the ladies. Not as funny as when Michelle fist-bumped them all, but they look delighted to see him.
11:20 a.m.: Makes a crack about Joy being “in the undecided category.” She fires back that she can’t wait to see the old McCain come back if he gets elected. There is vague booing in the audience. Did Elisabeth stack the crowd?
11:21 a.m.: Barbara ask about a McCain quote when he called Palin the greatest vice-president in history. “Better than John Adams?” Barbara asked. “We politicians are never given to exaggeration or hyperbole as you know,” McCain deadpanned.

11:24 a.m.: Joy asks McCain about the sex education for kindergartners attack ad, and how it is a lie. McCain denies that it was a lie.
11:25 a.m.: Barbara accuses McCain of using the same “lipstick on a pig” line that Obama used. McCain protested that he was talking about “a health-care plan.” Walters pointed out that Obama was talking about “change.” McCain argued, “He chooses his words very carefully. He shouldn’t have said it.” Wait, is McCain admitting he doesn’t choose his words carefully?
11:33 a.m.: Whoopi asks if McCain believes in the separation of church and state, because it seems like fervent Christian Sarah Palin maybe doesn’t. “Judeo-Christian values are the foundation of our nation,” McCain points out. Whoopi presses, and asks whether he would govern as God would want, or as was best for the American people. “I pray every day for guidance and to do the right thing,” McCain responds. “I am an imperfect person. I respect people who don’t think they need spiritual guidance. I just happen to be someone who does.” It wasn’t quite an answer, but it sounded good.
11:36 a.m.: Elisabeth asks whether he would work to overturn Roe v. Wade as president. A toughie from the home team! “We would not impose a litmus test on any issue,” McCain said, but indicated that he would select Supreme Court justices who might object to it. “I believe Roe v. Wade was a very bad decision,” he said, to a smattering of boos.
11:38 a.m. After McCain says “I believe in Supreme Court justices who interpret the Constitution as our founding fathers intended it,” Whoopi snaps back, “Should I be worried about being a slave again?” McCain concedes she has a point but doesn’t address it.
11:40 a.m.: After a clip of new footage showing McCain’s return to the United States after his five years in a Vietnamese POW camp, he observes that “in many ways it was a good experience for me and I served in the company of heroes.”
11:42 a.m.: Barbara asks a good question that we never thought about. When McCain famously rejected the offer by his captors to set him free before it was his turn, how come he got the choice in the first place? Since when do jailors give their prisoners choices about what to do? McCain points out that the only way for them to use his release as propaganda was for him to have accepted an offer of release, which would make him and the American military seem soft.
11:45 a.m.: Ooh! Cindy comes on. She’s learned about what outfits to wear on television, clearly. She’s wearing only bright color (a red pantsuit) and large chunky necklace, in the style of Michelle Obama. Her hair is feathered and fantastic, as always.
11:48 a.m.: Cindy is asked whether she disagrees with John on any political issues. She hedges for a long time on this one, and eventually says they don’t. But when asked if she supports Sarah Palin’s position that abortion should be banned, even in the case of rape or incest, Cindy is firm in her disagreement. It was good to see her confident — the emotion went well with her suit.
11:50 a.m.: Cindy points out that a McCain administration would be all-inclusive. “I’ll appoint Joy to be the director of communications!” McCain joked. The crowd ate that one up.
11:51 a.m.: Barbara Walters asks how many houses they own. Cindy says, “You know, that’s just not part of this campaign.” Then she talked about how lucky she was to have such hard-working parents who could provide for her. Slick, this one was clearly well prepped.
11:52 a.m.: Elisabeth thanks the couple for having two sons in the military.
11:56 a.m.: Whoopi asks McCain about being in touch with young voters through modern methods of communication. He says he talks to his kids, he goes on The View, Saturday Night Live, and has “a really great Website.” He made it sound like a delicious piece of steak.
11:58 a.m.: Sherri asks Cindy about her recent visit to Georgia. Cindy is really good on this point. She’s great when she’s talking about the causes she cares about. She even has rehearsed hand gestures!
Noon: Man, they are desperate to get Sarah Palin on the show. They keep mentioning it! Barbara closes by asking the McCains to tell Palin how nice the ladies are. “We only ask easy questions!” she says. We sort of disagree — many of the questions today were hard. They just didn’t insist upon getting them answered.

Live-Blogging the McCains on ‘The View’