So now that McCain has won his primary and no longer needs to cater to the wingnuts, how long before the beltway press begins to rehab his image? Who will be the first out of the gate with a “That’s the McCain I knew” piece?
My money is on either Halperin or Milbank- “You could tell he never really felt comfortable saying those things. The real Maverick is back!”
chopper
i’m going with halperin.
El Cid
How long? I’ll bet by the time this was posted it was done.
soonergrunt
I’ll lay a fiver on Chuck Todd.
It’s all going to depend on whether or not McCain hosts a barbecue, and how soon.
demo woman
How many times today will the media point out that Palin’s endorsements are better than Obama’s endorsements?
p.a.
How long? The articles are probably pre-written, just waiting to be posted. All McCain has to do is show up in public and not drool on himself.
Speaking of drooling, now that I’ve edged past 50 yrs old, judging by the family members left who are older than I, I’ve become a believer in a mandatory retirement age for politicians and judges. Genetics differ, of course, but in my family we seem to ‘lose our fastball’ pretty soon after 65. (of course, from a 20-somethings perspective I’m probably a junkballer myself. My only response to that is GET OFF MY LAWN). I wonder how much of our government is actually in the hands of staffers- committee or Senatorial. Reps seem to be younger on average and more ‘with it’.
cat48
He’s not getting any love on Morning Ho. They’re all bashing him…….still about the “dang fence.” Hard to rehabilitate that crap!
steviez314
Donuts with sprinkles for everyone!
Jim C
If she had a higher profile, I’d put my wager on Nedra Pickler.
Instead, I think it’ll be Halperin.
Dancin’ Dave Gregory might make a good dark horse pick, for you long-shot touts.
soonergrunt
MSNBC stream of the Today show from this morning, Chuck Todd answering questions from Matt Lauer,
“McCain is model for incumbents”
The Grand Panjandrum
Not exactly what you were writing about but this tickled the old funny bone this morning:
I’m with El Cid on this one. It has already been written.
ChrisWWW
I’m surprised the dude is still alive.
bend
Richard Cohen has already started writing it.
And by “writing,” I mean “begun rereading his old columns looking for sentences that just need a noun replaced to get through porous wall that is Fred Hiatt’s editorial guidelines.”
And by “rereading,” I mean “assigned his GW intern to look through”
mr. whipple
Had walnuts lost, Broder had a column ready decrying how it was the end of McCain-style centrism.
stuckinred
@p.a.: The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind
“Aside from usual short-term memory lapses of forgetting names and mislaying keys, the middle-aged brain is more vigorous, organized, and flexible than has been previously believed. ”
thank you very much
soonergrunt
@stuckinred: and this is good news for John McCain how? he’s like 400 years old. He looks like he fell off a charm bracelet, for Christ’s sake.
bkny
oh, that’s already started. i noticed the soft-peddling yesterday by kelly odonnell, downplaying the flippity-floppities by st johnnie the tortured.
the wdc magpies just can’t quit the guy… it’s been a whole summer without an invite to the log cabin and tire swinging.
General Stuck
If our lady of the long knives ms Peggy is sober enough to do a column, I bet one plug nickel on the sage of surreal straight talk.
Dan
At least we’re spared hayworth. That guy is a new level of stupid.
Dork
By “fluffing”, you mean fellacio, right?
aimai
@soonergrunt:
Hell, he looks like he fell off a Lucky Charms cereal box.
aimai
stuckinred
@soonergrunt: I was thinking more of me than him!
stuckinred
@Dork: Don’t get out much huh?
El Tiburon
Not much of a stretch there. Kind of like predicting that the first black golfer to bag an escort will either be tiger woods or John daly.
But otherwise, yes, it will be back to bizness as usual.
Comrade Javamanphil
Could of sworn I already read something about him this morning saying “Will he now work with the Democrats on immigration reform” but can’t find it since I rolled into work. Our political press has the memory of an ADHD gnat.
Punchy
He’s so old, he thinks Silly Bandz are groups like Weird Al Yankovic.
beltane
@soonergrunt: There is some truth to that. Being an unprincipled hack works well for all politicians, not just incumbents, and McCain is far more unprincipled than most, making him a role model in this regard.
beltane
In Vermont, we still do not know who our Democratic nominee for governor is. In some of the smaller towns, tiny towns with no more than a few hundred residents, the town clerks went to bed without completing the vote tallies. We need more people under the age of 90 getting involved in the process.
cleek
@demo woman:
listening to NPR this AM, i’d say 10,000,000 times.
and even though they said that 98% of incumbents had won their primaries this year, they still kept pushing the “anti-incumbent” storyline. it’s baffling.
WaterGirl
@soonergrunt: My first laugh of the day! Thank you.
Comrade Javamanphil
@Comrade Javamanphil: Ha. I read it here a few threads back. In my defense, I am still on Ireland time so it could be I am just really really tired. Highly recommend escaping this country in August as the silly season is particularly draining.
morzer
My money’s on Tweety, combining childish naivete with a desperate desire to seem adult and reasonable. I am sure he’ll love him some old Senator Bubblegum Head footage, and ignore the last four or five years.
Comrade Javamanphil
@beltane: Very true but what’s St. Albans excuse? Both town and city have yet to report. Was there a hockey game at Collins Perley last night or something?
me
McCain-style centrism: Lacking in any and all conviction, say only what you need to get elected, no more no less
Zandar
I’m going to be the oddball and say “What’s Jake Tapper doing this morning?”
demo woman
Will McCain be on Meet The Press this Sunday?
daryljfontaine
@Dork: Pretty much. There’s a reason they’re called media whores.
EDITED TO ADD: Although to be frank, both fluffers and whores have more respectable careers.
D
geg6
Chuckie Todd was already fwapping away on The Today Show over McGrumpy, so I guess he wins.
It’s all about how he overcame adversity by throwing away what little dignity and honor he had left by becoming a bigger asshole than that asshole Hayworth and how everyone should follow his strong and principled lead to victory in November.
The swoon is already in full swing.
soonergrunt
@demo woman: Did the sun rise in the east this morning? Does a bear shit in the woods? Does…aw hell, OF COURSE he’ll be on the David Gregory Beltway Village Mutual Admiration Society this Sunday.
geg6
@cleek:
They’ve got their story and they’re gonna stick to it. Regardless of what reality is.
soonergrunt
@geg6: Where do I get my five bucks?
DougJ
Joe Klein.
Poopyman
@soonergrunt: Sadly, the 5th year anniversary of Katrina gets between McGrumpy and the camera this Sunday.
geg6
@soonergrunt:
Talk to Cole. It’s his damn blog. ;-)
soonergrunt
@Poopyman: No. NOTHING can get between McGrumpy and a camera on Sundays in the US. He’s more reliable than NFL football. They’ll work in something about how his birthday party was ruined by Katrina and all those whining poor darkies needing to be rescued.
@geg6: Well, I guess I’m fucked then.
catclub
@geg6:
McCain beats an idiot by 25% and does it by pointing out repeatedly that said idiot is an idiot.
Meanwhile Lisa Murkowski faces a far less well known idiot and loses. Who should incombents follow?
Todd was saying that the McCain model for his election looks pretty good. Pretend you have no record and spend millions painting your idiot opponent as an idiot. If Harry Reid wins, it will be by doing just that.
I am not sure that reporting McCain is an unprincipled, but successful, campaigner (this time, ha, ha) is fluffing.
Xero
I wonder of Dancin’ David Gregory will be lucky wnough to get an “Exclusive!!one1” interview with JMcC next Sunday. It won’t be this Sunday as Brian Williams will be in NOLA talking about how bad Obama botched the Katrina response.
MattF
If it hasn’t happened yet (10:03, EDT) it’s only because the DFH’s are just waiting for it. But it’s OK, I can defer gratification for another hour or so.
eemom
‘Tis a pity he didn’t lose. There is no poetic justice in this world anymore.
thomas
@steviez314:
FTW
morzer
@eemom:
McCain is now clearly defined as Sarah Palin’s Chief Eunuch. There is some satisfaction in imagining the inner squirming this must cost the old misogynist.
geg6
@catclub:
But this is not how the reporting characterized it. The reporting was that everyone should follow McCain’s principled stand on being as completely unprincipled and insane as possible so as to beat the unprincipled and insane. Except that the actual words were something like how McCain was THE AWESOME and that everyone should follow his most excellent campaign strategy. No pointing out what a dishonest hack he is, just his awesomeness.
joe in oklahoma
Tweety already said it. last night.
and compared him to Goldwater, favorably.
Tom Q
@geg6: To mostly repeat what I said in the previous thread: the major Dem incumbents to lose this year have been corruption cases (Mollohan, Kirkpatrick) — a standard loss factor — and Specter, a party switch. The true “anti” this year is GOP primary voters rejecting establishment choices in favor of people further off the grid than one ever expected to see nominated for major office in this country. Either alot of them will lose winnable races, or the GOP will fall further off a cliff than even the last Congressional session suggested.
McCain is the exception, not the rule; he’s an Inglis/Bennett/Murkowski who held on. And I’d make the case the reason might be Hayworth was too establishment (former Congressman, with corruption charges to boot) to prevail in this climate. A right-wing cipher — an AZ Angle — might well have taken McCain out no matter how hard he pandered.
Midnight Marauder
@cat48:
When you’ve lost Morning
JoeHo, you should probably just give up on the rest of your life.Alwhite
On the retirement thing – Yes, congress critters (and much more so for senior ones & Senators) have a shit ton of assistants that lead them in everything they do. It would be as if whores had a team of people to do the actual deed and they just had to lay there & look pretty. Anyone could work till they are 90 under those conditions.
They are so far removed from reality that they probably actually believe everyone can work til they are 90.
BTW – as a kid I had a neighbor that survived the Bataan Death March, he told me one time that his dr. told him he had the physiology of a man 20-30 years older than his calendar age & assumed it was the deprivation he suffered. I am surprised McCain is still alive.
debbie
@ Tom Q:
I’d bet he got the loony vote because they saw how he could flip even on issues that had been so important to him (like immigration), and they figured they could bully him any which way they wanted. I’d even bet McCain will end up being the Number One Tea Partier.
neil
Of course, the Maverick never existed – but why let reality change a Media meme.
We have the most ferociously sedentary media on the planet – with the possible exception of China.
Mike in NC
Better yet, which pundit will speculate about him running against Obama in 2012?
Quaker in a Basement
Well here it is: CNN.
lucslawyer
And to think I once respected that azwipe….
Susan Kitchens
I was just in the state of AZ over the weekend (family memorial, else why go to AZ in late August?), and I guffawed at a billboard I saw–
McCAIN
Protecting Our Borders
(or something similar). Mom, who otherwise is sympathetic to non-Democrats, said, “What a paper tiger he turned out to be.”
In my extended family, there’s a rather prominent Hayworth supporter, and I know that among the AZ family, there are were a few JDH votes. The prominent supporter opined that tho he wasn’t polling so well, JD was counting on angry voters going to vote (for Hayworth) and disaffected voters staying home.
But hey, what’s that against blowing over 20 million principled dollars?