Two people from the major parties are running for President this year, Barack Obama and that other guy. You know, that one guy. Farmer MacDonald or Geezer McQuaid or something. You know... [finger-snap, finger-snap]... John McCain! That's it, John McCain.In the primaries, John McCain got a free ride from the media. In a way, that's still true. But the lack of media scrutiny has become a handicap for McCain in the general election. Only his flubs are being reported. To a certain extent, flubs are really all there are. He's betting everything on Iraq and it's a chump's bet. "The surge worked! The surge worked! The surge worked!" isn't really a plan. The sad fact of the matter is that McCain keeps telling us he's the one who'll win Iraq and that's the extent of his argument. You'll notice that he's a little sketchy on the details. He's not getting media coverage because -- let's face it -- there's nothing to cover. "Hole still a hole" isn't much of a headline.
Part of the disparity in coverage of McCain and Obama is Team McCain's own damned fault. Columnist and attempted vehicular homocide enthusiast Robert Novak wrote spoke with a source in the know and got this:
I asked one of the Republican Party's smartest, most candid heavy hitters last week whether John McCain really has a chance to defeat Barack Obama in this season of Republican discontent. "No, if the campaign is about McCain," he replied. "Yes, if it's about Obama."
Basically, McCain is trying to turn the election into a referendum on whether Barack Obama is ready to be the president. You don't need to be a brilliant political analyst to know how that's going to turn out. Hillary Clinton already tried it. It didn't work. If your entire campaign theme is "Look at Barack Obama!" the press is going to do something crazy like take you up on it...
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