"Black Baby"

While campaigning in South Carolina in 2000 for the Republican presidential nomination, Senator John McCain was hit with a scurrilous whisper campaign that spread the rumor that McCain had had a black baby out of wedlock. This campaign calumny was spread by telephone pushpolls that asked prospective Republican voters if they were "likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if [they] knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child?" McCain's first place lead evaporated and he finished 11% behind Bush...