Rape joke returns to torment McCain campaign

John McCain should have been fundraising in the Texas oil patch yesterday alongside his good friend Clayton Williams. In the town of Midland, Republican heavy-hitters were lined up to sign some equally weighty cheques for their man's presidential campaign.

Instead, the candidate was busy trying to salvage an already shaky reputation after America's female voters had been reminded of derogatory remarks that "Claytie" Williams made about women and rape nearly 20 years ago. While running unsuccessfully against Ann Richards for governor, the Texan was overheard comparing rape to the weather: "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

Following the resurrection of this and other off-colour remarks, the McCain campaign decided abruptly to cancel the fundraiser at Mr Williams's lavish Midland home. The campaign is also promising to hand back the $300,000 (£150,000) Mr Williams has already raised for the McCain campaign as it tried to contain the damage.

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Mr McCain's spokesman, Brian Rogers, said: "These were obviously incredibly offensive remarks that the campaign was unaware of at the time [the fundraiser] was scheduled."

The McCain campaign has been busy targeting supporters of Hillary Clinton after the bitterness of the primary struggle with Barack Obama. But while these women may be angry that Mrs Clinton has been blocked from making a historic bid for the White House, they are proving reluctant to support Mr McCain despite a very public charm offensive about Mrs Clinton's attributes as a leader.

Mr Obama has already moved into a 19 per cent lead over Mr McCain among female voters and at an appearance in the car manufacturing town of Flint, Michigan, yesterday, he sought to paint the Republican candidate as an out-of-touch clone of President George Bush, attacking on him on trade policy, taxes, the environment, and education.

Mrs Clinton's supporters are also aware of a tasteless joke Mr McCain made about Chelsea Clinton's looks in 1998. While the mainstream US media deemed it "too vicious to print", Mr McCain's remarks at another Republican fundraiser still echo round the internet. "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?" he asked his guests. It was, he said,"because her father is Janet Reno [US attorney general under President Bill Clinton]."

Mr McCain later personally apologised to Mr Clinton for the remarks and went on to become a close friend of Mrs Clinton. If he fails to win the White House in November, the two may rekindle the alliance they forged during an all-night drinking session on the way to Baghdad a few years ago, when by all accounts Mrs Clinton drank her old colleague under the table.

For all Mr McCain's missteps on the campaign trail, his lively communication style has endeared him to a largely fawning media. The McCain back-story of imprisonment and torture while a prisoner of war in Vietnam have made his campaign almost bomb-proof despite his tactical errors.

Known as "Senator Hothead," for his volcanic temper tantrums, Mr McCain, now 71, has turned that unhelpful trait into a badge of honour, explaining to voters that while he regrets losing his cool from time to time, it reflects the passion he feels for his country.

He once called Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, (a former factory worker and farmer) "a fucking jerk." He told Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, also a Republican, that "only an asshole would put together a budget like this", adding for good measure: "I wouldn't call you an asshole unless you really were an asshole." The outbursts are so legendary, (and the victims often so well deserving) that Mr McCain is still viewed with sympathy. He is almost as well-known for his apologies, so eloquent they are known as "McCain Notes".

Mr McCain has also been careful to maintain a friendly relationship with members of the media, sometimes chatting for so long they run out of questions or batteries for their recorders.

And as a result, from the highbrow pages of the New Yorker to the lowliest tabloid, Mr McCain comes across as a happy, wisecracking, energetic politician with a heart of gold. He may occasionally confuse Sunni with Shia, but accusations from Mr Obama that he is "confused" or "has lost his bearings" are quickly slapped down as "ageism".

While Mr Obama has the rock star appeal that can fill a stadium in a heartbeat, Mr McCain's favoured venues are the small Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting rooms found in most American towns. Holding the microphone in an arm that still bears the scars of being repeatedly broken by his captors, he wanders around the hall taking questions and giving witty answers.

Mr McCain has challenged Mr Obama to join him for 10 town-hall-style meetings, in addition to the three choreographed debates that are the staple fare of every American election. Mr Obama's campaign is trying to find a way of accepting the challenge, without putting the Democratic candidate at a complete disadvantage.

The black marks against McCain

*McCain's promise to "change Washington" took a knock when it was revealed that senior staff had worked as lobbyists for foreign governments and private firms without disclosing their activities. A lobbying firm owned by Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, worked with the controversial Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovich (who had close ties to Vladimir Putin) without registering as a lobbyist.

*McCain has a long history as a carouser. One of his early girlfriends was an exotic dancer and there are allegations that he improperly used Navy aircraft to ferry his girlfriends around the country. Earlier this year a New York Times report, heavy on innuendo, reported that a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman had a relationship with the candidate, including assertions that McCain even acknowledged "improprieties" to some of his staff. McCain and Iseman flatly denied the story.

*When a recent grim report about unemployment came out, McCain described the news as "not terrible", raising further questions about his grasp of fiscal issues. "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," he said in December.