Politics/Poetry Don't Mix

The Washington Post reports that a poet and Iraq war veteran posed a literary question to presidential hopeful John McCain at a recent town hall meeting: "Who is the poet laureate of the state of Arizona, or the U.S. poet laureate, which is a position appointed by the President?"

McCain immediately replied, "I give up. You want to tell me?"

"It's Robert Pinsky," the veteran/poet answered. Wrong Answer.

Pinsky was poet laureate between 1997 and 2000, but the current poet laureate is Charles Simic. To further add to the ridiculousness of the exchange, Arizona is one of 12 states that doesn't have a state poet laureate and the U.S. poet laureate is not appointed by the President, but by the Librarian of Congress.