johnnyhongkong says…

My meeting at FOX got pushed back to Thursday.

And good thing too because this story about Cindy McCain jacking recipes from the Food Network for the McCain Family Recipes page on the campaign website was just too good to pass up.

What the F were those fuckers thinking?

In a Monday morning strategy session:

Chief strategist: “We need to make Cindy more matronly.”

Underling: “Let’s make a page on the website that links to her heirloom family recipes.”

CS: “That bitch can’t cook.”

Underling: “They’re just recipes. She doesn’t have to cook them.”

CS: “Genius - make up some recipes and we’ll spin a story about what a wonderful homemaker she is. That’ll really speak to the housewives of America.”

Doing research, the Underling surfs over to the Food Network site and his mouth waters when he sees the recipe for Passion Fruit Mousse. Because that’s precisely the thing that a cougary, milfy mom like Cindy McCain makes. The underling copies and pastes it.

Asian Ahi Tuna with Napa Cabbage slaw? Yumm-O, he thought. He just forgot that the mere mention of fish sauce would send John McCain into an apoplectic fit.

Farfalle Pasta with Turkey Sausage, Peas and Mushrooms? Mmm…Giada De Laurentis. Now, he’s just asking to get caught…which is exactly what happened.

This is one of those weird examples of a campaign underling getting way too creative with a PR project and then not committing fully to the idea.

If they weren’t so damn creative, they could have just typed something up from the Joy of Cooking. You know how big that book is? Nobody would have recognized that Cindy McCain’s recipe for lasagna was exactly the same as the one of the millions published in cookbooks.

And if they had fully committed to the idea, they would have changed some details in the recipe so that Google couldn’t drop a dime on him. It never would have happened if he had changed “farafalle” to ”gemelli” and “turkey sausage” to “hot pork sausage.”

The campaign jacked recipes from Gale Gand, the Cooking Thin chick, Giada De Laurentis and Rachael Ray. But do you know whose recipe file they didn’t raid?

Semi-Homemade’s Sandra Lee.

As Cindy McCain’s younger, less creepy looking, dead ringer it could have at least sparked some “have you ever seen the two of them in the same place at the same time” gossip.