[4] On April 5, 2003, McCain was presented to society at the Board of Visitors Debutante Ball at the Camelback Inn in Paradise Valley, Arizona.

[1] She said she did so "as a symbol of my commitment to my dad and to represent the faith I have in his ability to be an effective leader for our country and to grow and strengthen the Republican party when he is elected president of the United States.

In this article, McCain questioned why Republicans support Coulter, calling her "offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing".

[15] While Coulter did not respond, conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham challenged McCain's article by comparing her to a "valley girl."

Ingraham also mocked McCain: "Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in The Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models.

"[18] Politico stated that while John McCain did not emerge victorious from the 2008 election, "his Bud Light–drinking, talk-show–appearing, insouciantly Twittering 24-year-old daughter" did.

"[19] Statements such as these led news reports and commentators including Rachel Maddow and Kathleen Parker to conclude that McCain had the same "maverick gene" as her father.

[23] On a May 2009 episode of the Colbert Report, McCain stated her support for sex education and criticized Bristol Palin's sexual abstinence campaign, saying it was "not realistic for this generation".

She states that the Republican Party seemed "to have lost its way in the last ten years"[28] and added that the conservative movement seemed "hell-bent on restricting our freedoms rather than expanding them".

[31] During the promotional tour for the book, McCain canceled an appearance at Juniata College owing to what she called "unforeseen professional circumstances."

[32] In May 2011, McCain joined celebrities like Brandy Norwood, Tatyana Ali and Danielle Fishel in appearing naked in a public service announcement for skin cancer awareness.

[33][34] In 2012, McCain posed for the April issue of Playboy wearing a red-sequined dress and blue stilettos[35][36] and spoke to the magazine about a wide range of subjects, including her sex life.

[39] In December 2019, McCain spoke at the annual End Well Symposium about challenging taboos and destigmatizing conversations about grief and death.

[43] A month-long road trip with comedian Michael Ian Black in the summer of 2011 led to a collaboration on the 2012 book America, You Sexy Bitch: A Love Letter to Freedom.

[44] In it, McCain lambasts Republican strategist Karl Rove for what she believes was his role in the attacks against her younger sister in her father's 2000 presidential campaign, castigates Bill Clinton for his actions in the Lewinsky scandal, but despite ideological differences, praises Hillary Clinton for having "pushed through many doors and shattered many glass ceilings for women in politics.

"[44] In November 2011, McCain became an analyst on MSNBC, and immediately got into a back-and-forth with 2012 Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

[45] In September 2013, her road-based talk show Raising McCain began on the start-up Pivot cable and satellite television channel.

[49] She signed on as a Fox News contributor in July 2015 and was named a regular co-host of the afternoon talk program Outnumbered on November 14, 2016.

[50] Following her departure from both the program and the network in September 2017,[51] McCain was named a permanent co-host of the ABC daytime talk show The View.

[56][57] McCain describes herself as "a woman who despises labels and boxes and stereotypes"[58] and politically identifies as a Republican who is "liberal on social issues.

"[60] McCain agrees with her father's positions on global warming, stem-cell research, and supporting environmentalist legislation.

In this way, she spoke at the Log Cabin Republicans convention in April 2009,[58] describing her cultural and political perspectives with the declaration: "I am concerned about the environment.

[65] McCain described the Trump administration's ban on transgender service as "an unfair, un-American, and dangerous policy.