The Right Strengthens its Hold on McCain, the Media Refuse to Notice

[Suzie]

The Right Strengthens its Hold on McCain, the Media Refuse to Notice (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-right-strengthens-its_b_87231.html)

Posted February 18, 2008 | 03:38 PM (EST)

<!-- Content --> What is it going to take for the media to snap out of its starry-eyed -- stuck in 2000 -- view of John McCain?

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Despite an avalanche of evidence (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/end-of-a-romance-why-the_b_86086.html) showing that McCain the Maverick has long ago been replaced by McCain the Pandering Pawn of the Party's Right Wing, the press refuses to believe its own eyes.
The latest demonstration of the enormous lag time between the presentation of a new reality and the media's willingness to update the conventional wisdom comes via those bastions of the traditional media, The New Yorker and the New York Times.
The latest New Yorker features a loving 7,000+ word profile of McCain (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_lizza) by Ryan Lizza that portrays him as a moderate who has "the rare opportunity to reinvent what it means to be a Republican."
Let's see, McCain has bowed to the party's lunatic fringe on tax cuts, immigration, the intolerance of religious bigots, and torture... so exactly how is he reinventing what it means to be a Republican? By shortening the amount of time it takes before a candidate is hijacked by the Right, perhaps?



Lunatic fringe???? :rolleyes:

[DeclinetoState]

Given that this is from the Huffington Post, that probably should be taken as a compliment.

[Timberwolf]

Why anyone listens to this vacuous twit is beyond my ability to comprehend

[maxparrish]

Rest assured Ariana, McCain is still his own superficial, but deeply self rightous, man. He's made accomidations before (like switching sides on flag burning and laughing about the cynical reasons for it) and if elected, he will rebel against his handlers. One thing about McCain is that he does not take orders well, which helped put him at the bottom of his graduating class.

There is, of course, one small crack in his stupid shield. He has confessed he knows little about the economy (and the law) SO he might be a 71 year old willing to learn. While global warming and no borders is in his soul, some areas might be open to change.

And we might hope that his average rating of ACU rating of 73 since 2000 (and 65 in 2006) might be fueled by bitterness rather than four square liberalism (only Maine's senators and Lugar rate lower among Republicans).

It's up to him to prove he is not what he has been. So far he has been....so-so.

[DeclinetoState]

It's up to him to prove he is not what he has been.It's also up to him to prove he is not a has-been.

[maxparrish]

It's also up to him to prove he is not a has-been.

LOL...but I think he is. At least against Hillary he seemed to be more honest, stable, experienced, and a seasoned leader.

Against Obama he seems tired, old, uninspiring, and stale. McCain has worn out his base with lectures, and he is irrelevant to the 'change' crowd of the left. He chased, burned, and drove out the conservative village 'to save it', he now turns to the town and calls for a chair and litter to carry him to battle.

The GOP is nearly a ghost town. The dead rhetorical tumble weeds aimlessly roll along its dusty streets. The ideolgoical water troughs are empty, the value doors are smashed, the windows to the Reagan past are broken, and the town vacated. A few oldsters wander along the streets, repeating old habits for reasons they no longer remember.

The maverick gunfighter chased away the troops, now he is alone with a few other old and retired men of the party, the likes of Kemp and Bush. He is doomed to unheroic defeat, swept aside by a reality of his own making. He is tired, and worn, and irrelevant.

[PaulRevere]

A famous Churchill quote goes something like:
"Every once in a while people stumble upon the truth - but most scurry along as if nothing ever happened."

John McCain had a brief epiphany with the NY Times hit piece, but probably went back into denying that the liberal media actually doesn't like him, fancying himself as the Top Gun "Maverick" 'Nam pilot image that they flatter him with.

Indeed, his pronouncements about "moving on" from the controversy suggests that he didn't learn his lesson, just as he never noticed what a useful idiot he was for the left with his McCain-Feingold bill and his McCain-Kennedy bill.

[Suzie]

Indeed, his pronouncements about "moving on" from the controversy suggests that he didn't learn his lesson,

Would you prefer he spend time focused on this instead of what he plans to do as president? The truth is we have no idea what he has learned any more than all the people who jumped so easily from Fred (who also supported McCain Feingold) to Mitt Romney who has supported nearly every liberal cause that even McCain has never supported. Romney was pro abortion, pro gun control and everyone here seemed to think he had changed with nothing like this incident or any other to even suggest that he learned from anything. Nothing other than he just needed to say it so he could run for president. People don't need to dwell on something to learn from it. Lets pray he has learned because he is the only choice we have now that conservatives nit picked about all the other choices till their weren't anymore. Conservatives kept saying Duncan Hunter can't win ... ignore him. Tancredo isn't well known enough. Fred is too lazy and doesn't want it bad enough. That's what got us here. :(

[PaulRevere]

Just a word, any word, that he recognized and was resentful of the unabashed partisan yellow journalism hit piece would have helped. His peevish response made me think he was dumbstruck that he, the media's darling, would be victimized by them. I think that he's more concerned with continuing to suck up to the Times than to learn anything from their (fortunately) clumsy and amateurish hatchet job.

Of course, given the non-response the Bush team made to Dan Rather's fraudulent and partisan attack with the TX NG non-story, why would the Times worry about repercusions from the right?

It won't be their last attack on him, for until Republicans use their God-given pair and stand up like men against these gutter sniping bullies, they will continue to unapologetically launch their baseless attacks.be their last attack on him.

[Suzie]

What he is doing now seems to be working for him, he has got plenty of donations from people saying they donated because of this.

And if he went too nuts over it he would be pounded for the temper everyone talks about.

This seems to be a win situation for him right now, I am sure he has people telling him not to blow it.

[PaulRevere]

I know what you are saying, but I thought his response was too weak. My impression is that he craves being the media darling too much for his own good.

[Suzie]

Well Bush didn't really go off on Dan Rather, he let him hang himself. Let's hope all the liberal media will follow when they try stuff like this.

[Lubbock]

As we all know, this is just the opening salvo that will be launched against McCain from the NYT and other LeftStreamMedia.

Being the eternal optimist, I'm looking for the Pony.

[PaulRevere]

Well Bush didn't really go off on Dan Rather, he let him hang himself. Let's hope all the liberal media will follow when they try stuff like this.
Exactly. Not a word from the peanut gallery. They get a lying libelous fraud perpetrated against them and no one in the Bush White House utters a peep. They leave it to the pajama hadeen to expose the fraud. There was a crime in there, and no one lifted a finger to find out where that conspiracy came from. Meanwhile Bush is throwing Scooter Libby and Alberto Gonzalez under buses for completely bogus manufactured scandals.

The only reason these bullies keep doing it is because they keep getting away with no consequences.

[Suzie]

True, but it ended up hurting Dan Rather and it didn't hurt Bush, so it seems that type of stuff kills the messenger more, even if all the person accused does is say it's not true. I think if it's going his way right now, he doesn't really need to do anything else. It's getting blasted by conservatives.... even Rush is smacking them, McCain can let them fight it while he campaigns on the issues.