Free Ride

There's a book put out by Media Matters about John McCain's relationship with the Press. Specifically how comfortable he is with his press cronies. Salon did an interview with one of the authors recently, and it's worth checking out. It's interesting that they go to some length to point out that they are critiquing the Press more than McCain. That said, it's hard to write this kind of book without mentioning the negative stories you think the Press is ignoring. That's one of the differences between the Liberals and Conservatives. A Rush Limbaugh or an Ann Coulter is gleeful at pointing out the flaws of Liberals - they live to tear down Liberals. While a Liberal going after a Conservative has to kind of apologize for it. Consider this;

With McCain, what you see when the character question comes up is three letters: POW. And that, as far as many in the press are concerned, is the beginning and the middle and the end of John McCain's character story. All you need to know is he suffered greatly and showed courage as a POW in Vietnam. That's certainly part of his story. But it's only a part.

The fact that McCain has this volcanic temper and can be extremely vindictive is something that people in Washington know, people in Arizona certainly know; both places are littered with people who have been the target of his ire, and if we're going to talk about character, then that's part of his story too. We should be able to see the good side and the bad side. One of the things we see about McCain which is different than the way other candidates get covered is that he gets defined by the most noble thing he ever did, the most praiseworthy parts of his character. Other candidates often get defined by the stupidest or least noble thing they ever did.

He's not wrong. Liberal politicians (even moderate liberals like Clinton or Obama) are defined by their worst moments; John McCain is defined by his most noble. Forever and ever.