You can get the gist of this appalling Maeve Reston piece about her days with the McCain campaign at David Kurtz’s “Tire Swinging, A Love Story,” but for the more complete rundown, I would recommend Glenn.
It really was an embarrassing piece. And, it is worth remembering, that when the right-wingers bitch about tough press coverage for the McCain camp, the media had to go from all the way in McCain’s pocket to the current state. That is how bad his campaign has been. The tough coverage of McCain is not based on an unending love of Obama, but the result of McCain running a really, really, bad campaign.
A comparison of the treatment Obama receives versus what McCain receives.
dmsilev
I "love" the bit how she basically blames herself for the breakup of the lovely relationship, by being the one who asked the infamous Viagra question. It’s like some stereotypical soap-opera romance or something.
She should be embarrassed to have written this piece.
-dms
r€nato
I highly recommend yesterday’s Fresh Air, which was an interview with a journalist who wrote an extensive article on McCain’s campaign (for NYT? not sure).
Apparently Steve Schmidt convinced Johnny Walnuts that while he had previously profited handsomely from his good relations with the press, it was inevitable that they would turn on him during the general election campaignand therefore he should adopt a far less media-friendly attitude towards them.
Another Schmidtty campaign decision – willingly throwing away one of your biggest advantages.
The Grand Panjandrum
Please! Once again all these facts! Stop!
The narrative from the Republicans is laughable. McCain loses his "base" and now it’s unfair and all those meanies in the press are slapping the Anti-Socialist Hero around? Oh, the horror! You can’t make up this stuff, can you?
jp
What’s really stunning is how Reston has, apparently, no idea of what she is admitting to. Embarrassing is too mild a world.
MattF
I’m pleased to say that I expected McCain to run a really bad campaign. Remember– he was crushed by Bush/Rove in 2000 with a wacko smear. There are ways of dealing with this sort of thing without going crazy, see, e.g., Obama 2008.
Brian J
I think certain coverage of the Obama campaign by the mainstream has been bad, but it’s not biased against Obama in the sense that there’s an agenda to make him look bad. On the same note, I don’t think that coverage of McCain that has made him look bad is really part of some plan to piss all over his chances. Instead, I think it’s a reflection that his campaign was floundering and he was only making it worse. Conservatives are bound to disagree with this. Once McCain loses, I have no doubt that some allegedly unfair coverage of his campaign will be one of the principal reasons behind the loss, even if there’s no actual proof of it.
Ash Can
This seems as good a time as any to reiterate a now-buried post of mine, this time with more detail, for the sole reason that it’s totally LOLable:
McCain campaign DEMANDS, goddammit, that the terrorist-loving LA Times release a video it has of Barack Obama hanging out with a Palestinian. Drudge takes up the call, front-pages Camp McCain’s screed. After all, we NEED to know just who B. Hussein associates with, right? HuffPo replies: "Um, you mean the same guy McCain’s International Republican group bankrolled ten years ago?" Hey, waddya know, the Drudge story goes poof.
Guys, I am neither smart enough nor witty enough to make this shit up by myself.
r€nato
that story by Maeve Reston is just pathetic. It could have been written by a guy who thought the call girl or stripper really loved him… until his money ran out. Did it never once occur to her (or her editor) how this story sounded???
JimPortlandOR
Epic FAIL.
That’s the epitaph to be written on the tombstone of the 2008 McCain campaign.
I can’t think of a single feature of the McCain campaign that actually, you know, worked.
The contrast with the nearly flawless campaign organization and strategy (thank you David Alexrod) of Obama will make at least five great books.
Cyrus
True, and don’t let any kneejerk centrists or Republican apologists forget it. This is as close to objectively true as anything about political maneuvering can be.
McCain picked a vice-presidential candidate for transparently political reasons, and yet she undercut his own strength and his biggest criticism of Obama. He claimed to suspend his own campaign (but didn’t really) to insert himself into a problem he had no particular expertise with, and claimed success despite not actually succeeding. He’s been standoffish with his base in the media, even adversarial sometimes. He apparently hasn’t even tried to pivot to the center after winning the nomination. These are just a few of several major, one-sided, unforced errors.
The Other Steve
@r€nato:
An apt analogy with the stripper. Yesterday I sent her an email, with this:
And in response I got a snarky reply of the "I’m sorry I didn’t meet your high standards" sort.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
The reason McCain’s campaign looks bad is because, in reality, it IS bad. Considering the good media relationship he threw down the toilet, they are being far too kind to him. They are simply reporting that which has happened. They are not vilifying him, as they could. They are simply reporting the facts on the ground.
I suppose the media was supposed to just ignore the stories coming out of his campaign? Or go "all Wright, all the time"?
John McCain’s choices are what sunk him, not the media.
aarrgghh
the crew at tpm outdid themselves two weeks ago with a little roundup of who’s on and off the swing:
"TPM Presents: McCain & The Pundits: Tire Swinging, the Alternative political Lifestyle"
"just so much fun – feels ammaaaaaazing"
lutton
Dear Penthouse Letters:
I never thought something like this would happen to me…
lutton
re: NPR’s Fresh Air
here – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96213285
A Narrative Problem: The Many Faces Of McCain
Comrade Stuck
John McCain — Sea Lion Stud (or a bad wetsuit joke)
Delia
You know, Josh Marshall really needs to be congratulated on the tire swing meme. He pretty much invented it and got it circulating, so now when members of the press sing sad country songs asking where all the love went, everyone can just mock them and replay that little loop with the tire swing.
Oh, and one other thing: TPM basically started the campaign to save Social Security when Bush decided to privatize it.
Mike G
He claimed to suspend his own campaign (but didn’t really) to insert himself into a problem he had no particular expertise with, and claimed success despite not actually succeeding.
This ‘suspend normal activity to deal with this important crisis’-while-actually-contributing-nothing was a transparent political stunt McThuselah had pulled several times before in his career. His BBQ-sauce clubby media fanboys had gullibly eaten it up every time, praising him for his ‘bravery’ and ‘principles’.
This time he tried it on the national stage with a press that wasn’t in his back pocket and actually scrutinized what he was doing, and it bit him in the ass. It is always gratifying to see the insufferably smug who think they’ve got the world on a string, struggle when they are exposed to the real world outside their bubble.