Doing both the Iranian people and the Beach Boys a grave dishonor in one extraordinary gaffe, John McCain made the ill-conceived move of covering that classic good-time hit “Barbara Ann,” with a slight, hawkish adaptation: he changed the lyrics to “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.”

McCain performed this latest act of creative campaigning at a VFW gathering in South Carolina on Wednesday, after an audience member asked him, “When can we send an air mail message to Tehran?”