Cindy McCain: Trying To Keep Her Husband From Looking Dumb

Remember how Nancy Reagan used to correct her husband during his later presidential years, covering up the fact that he was becoming senile?

Well McCain isn't even in office yet, and already Cindy McCain is already trying to keep him on track. In the AP version of the Iran/cigarette story:

Cindy McCain's jab to her husband's back came a second too late Tuesday to keep him from making a wisecrack about the health impact of Iran's main import from the United States: cigarettes.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked about an Associated Press report that $158 million in cigarettes have been shipped to Iran during George W. Bush's presidency despite restrictions on U.S. exports to that country.

"Maybe that's a way of killing them," McCain told reporters, smiling as he waited for a cheesesteak sandwich at the Primanti Brothers restaurant. His wife, sitting next to him at the counter, poked his back without looking up.

"I meant that as a joke," McCain quickly explained. "As a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years," he began to say, when his wife corrected him: 29 years.

Taking a more serious tone, McCain said, "I'd like to look into" details of exports to Iran. "This is the first that I've heard about it," he said.

And I seem to remember Joe Lieberman having to correct McCain on the Iran/Al Qaeda issue back in March. Is this guy really ready to be president?