Last night I caught part of On Point on NPR about The Media and John McCain. They had the author of Free Ride: John McCain and the Media on the show. He pummeled all the conventional descriptions of McCain. He's not a maverick, he's not a moderate, he not a straight talker, he is politically calculating, etc.
Kevin Drum wonders about McCain's Cred. "Let's recap. Foreign policy cred lets him get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. "Man of conviction" cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA does it. Remind me again: where does all this cred come from? And what window do Democrats go to to get the same treatment the press gives McCain?" Lots of links in the original post.
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