It rhymes with Rich and has put his campaign in the ditch ( for a bit)

You have to feel a little sympathy for Republican candidate John McCain, one of the few perceived nice guys left in the political arena.

At one of those meet and greet sessions that American politicians attend in the interminable pre-primary season, McCain found himself inadvertently the centre of attention in a dust up with the Democrats and in particular Hillary Clinton.

In the video clip that has become a hot item, McCain prepares to take questions from the assembled coffee klatch, when what appears to be a Blue Rinse Meanie utters the B word when asking how they, the Republicans (and maybe even McCain) might beat Hillary in any Presidential showdown.

McCain looks a tad taken aback and a tad uncomfortable, but eventually he cobbles together an answer that at least deflects some of the sting of the potty mouthed granny. Yet, regrettably he didn't come out and chastise her over her choice of words and dis-respect to a dedicated American politician. Even more disturbing for the course of civility in politics, the McCain campaign seems to have decided that CNN is as much of a threat to their plans as any Democrats may be, a course of action that surely won't be beneficial to the Senator in the long run.

However, as is the case in politics one persons misfortune is another sides gain, all afternoon the Democrats and the media were making great mileage with McCain's misfortune, now a high rotation feature in the YouTube universe.

The brief snippet of a tedious little political meeting, seems to provide more of an insight into the state of politics these days and the level of debate, than all of the talking heads on Television could ever hope to provide.