Muslim voters were never terribly enthusiastic about the presidential candidacy of John McCain. His foreign policy stances seem squarely at odds with the Muslim foreign policy agenda. Every time he mentions his planned "Rogue State Rollback," Muslims cringe at what that could mean for hapless Muslims the world over. But despite such policy stances, he had not been entirely ruled out. That all changed Friday with the revelation that McCain referred to Vietnamese with the racially pejorative term "Gook," while responding to reporters questions aboard his campaign bus.

The faux pas made the front pages of newspapers in California where there is a critical mass of Asian voters.

More egregious an offense than the slur itself was McCain's refusal to apologize for the derogatory statement. "I was referring to my prison guards [during the Vietnam War] and I will continue to refer to them in language that might offend some people because of the beatings and torture of my friends," said McCain, as quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Is that so?

So I suppose if McCain says, "I hate those niggers," he's just referring to the ones who happen to be disproportionately incarcerated by an arguably biased judicial system. If he blurts out, "Those damn chinks," he would only be referring to violent Chinese Triad gang members. If he slips and says, "I loathe those towel heads Muslim fundamentalists," he could only be referring to terrorists who have kidnapped and killed women and children. And if he makes the error of all errors and says, "I hate those kikes," he would only mean those Jews who torture Palestinian prisoners, not much unlike McCain himself was tortured in a Vietnamese POW camp.

Indeed I would like hear McCain's opinion on niggers, kikes, chinks, towel heads, waps, broads, gooks, redskins, spear chuckers, half breeds, kafirs and any other groups to which he might have an aversion.

Oh, and Senator, just in case you wanted to solidify your loss in the demographically multi-ethnic state of California, I think the slur you're looking for with reference to Latinos/Chicanos/Hispanics is spic or wetback.

I wonder if he's ever met Joerg Haider?

What will be interesting to see, is how McCain tries to smooth this over. More than likely he will come back with some version of the tired retort: "Some of my best friends are Asian." But chances are that won't work. He's basically opened himself up to a fresh round of attacks from his opponents. And it is doubtful they will miss this opportunity.

What voters need to remember, is that if he is this loose in the public arena, one can only guess at the truest of his feelings he expresses towards ethnic peoples in private. This man is not the type of leader America needs in a world that is ever shrinking, where cultural sensitivity no longer desirable, but requisite.

Iviews.com strongly urges all voters to abandon McCain and to focus on candidates that respect racial and ethnic diversity and are at least aware of the needs and sensitivities of all communities.