McCain Loyalist Salter Turned Into Media Litigator

Washington Post:

"I see the bias for Obama all over," he said, and let that hang there. His office TV was muted, but his crazed beeper was signaling him every minute or so. He hadn't had a cigarette for several hours and confessed to feeling a tad jumpy. "But this thing with Obama: We're naturally concerned -- especially because the media isn't, none of you guys are."

And then he just stared at his visitor.

He has a good stare, not exactly foreboding, but hard enough to let a stranger know when he is not messing around. He stands a stocky 5-foot-9, about the same as his boss. The goatee is all his own, but his steel-blue eyes, intensity and bluntness regularly evoke comparisons to his hero's bearing and demeanor.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[GoBarryGo]

Two words for you, Salter: Sour. Grapes.

What you are seeing is the media finally calling out Republican BS for what it is, instead of cowering to the GOP and feeling like they can't question their lies. After the last two elections, that may feel like "bias" to you -- but the reality is your scare tactics and fear mongering have stopped working. The electorate changed and you did not -- this is the result and you deserve every last humiliating morsel of it.

[scottbee]

blaming the media for a campaign that makes the dukakis campaign look good

soon i expect the mccain campaign to endorse the

Sarah Palin Bedroom Stimulus Package

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUMO6zc27gg

[snarkopolitan]

Want to see a precursor of this whole dirty mudspattered trainwreck? The director of "Why We Fight" interviewed McCain for the movie, and Salter tries to move heaven, earth, and the BBC to try to get McCain out of the hot water he talked himself into:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eugene-jarecki/the-straight-talk-train-w_b_139218.html

What's sadly hilarious is
1. Salter's inattention to detail
2. panicked scrambling
3. ineffectual bullying
4. kneejerk smearing
are all in full evidence back when McCain was still relatively unbesmirched as the Straight Talk Express.

Oh yes----- the ends Salter was seeking with his amoral means? You'll laugh. You'll cry.

[MikePS65]

"McCain has standards and he has ideals, and he believes he has an obligation to live up to that, to be that guy."

Isn't it okay, Mr. Salter, for the press or anyone else to point it out when a candidate fails to live up to those expressed ideals and standards (e.g. to run a clean campaign, etc.)?

Salter seems to equate fighting hard with racial fear mongering, false personal attacks and outright lies. Most Americans are at least braced for a tough fight during a campaign season. But when a candidate stops talking about his "standards and ideals" and starts peddling fear and hate, then his campaign has not a leg left to stand on. The abandonment of his ideals and the rise of Sarah Palin will be "maverick" John McCain's legacy. Pathetic.

I hope Mark Salter and the rest of his ilk see the election of Obama as a statement that most Americans aren't afraid anymore.

[tangie]

Salter has just one little problem. He's wrong. McCain's behavior spoke for itself.

The real issue was in the closing paragraphs of the story--that Salter saw himself riding the gravy train, getting his books published, and being McCain's "Rove."

Too bad, so sad.

[londongal]

Tell your candidate to be dignified, stop slandering his opponent, stick to issues and not character assasinations and inuendos about past assocations, and stop lying about his opponent, then maybe he'll gain more respect from voters and perhaps more traction in the polls. Oh, and tell his running mate to CEASE and DESIST with her guilt-by-a­ssociation stump speeches lest we have to revisit AIP, Troopergate, Clothinggate, Witchdoctorgate, Jews for Jesus-gate, etc.

Personally, I'm done with McCain. And, I can't stomach Palin -- she's a disgrace!

[chronic]

AMEN!

[somefool]

And this maters of course because Salter is obviously objective? Yeah right.

[Rapid Ray]

I don't envy Mark Salter's situation.

It's been said many times that the John McCain we are seeing in this election is not the same John McCain we saw in 2008. If anything, McCain's cynicism has been the biggest change in his character and Saulter has watched this transformation from close quarters.

Reading the entire article, I get the feeling that this is not as much about finger pointing than it is an honest admission that he feels betrayed. Now he has been positioned to not only address the medai in a losing effort, but to do so for a man he no longer knows.

Again, I don't envy is position, but I hardly find is devotion to someone who has betrayed his own ideals worthy of pity.
You did see this coming, Mr. Saulter, and you blindness to the truth was rooted in false hope.

Next time, you would do well to look before you leap.

[whit4brains]

Don't worry Salter the wwaaaambulance is on it's way!

[RThM]

He's seeing the bias for Obama all over? Of course. The whole country is showing a marked bias. It's called being the clear leader and probable winner in the race. It's nonsense to expect the press to keep pushing the scales back into balance simply to benefit McCain when they're obviously so far off balance for him at this point.

[BBackSoon]

"I see the bias for Obama all over,"

I do too. Obama is in my humble opinion telling the truth, has stuck by what he says, with smart changes when needed, and McSame is slinging s#it like a manu re spreader.

The media should not offer us falsehoods just so we can have a counterpoint. And when a campaign lies constantly and accuses the other side of doing thing they themselves have done in the past the press should report it, Not gloss over it.

[jeffp26]

When did the GOP become the party of crybabies?

[NationalTreasure]

wah wah wah

whine whine whine

give the republicans harpies some cheese to go with their whine

[Maloysius]

Young Goodman Salter should remember that during the primary Obama was thoroughly scrutinized, while McCain was given a free pass. Jeremiah Wright dominated the news for 2 weeks, while Hagee was barely mentioned. McCain made gaffe after gaffe that was overlooked. It was barely noted that he said he would appoint Phil "Mr Enron Loophole" Gramm, as Treasury Secretary. Michelle Obama was painted as an angry, country hating black woman while Cindy McCain's stealing of narcotics from her own charity went unreported. The truth is McCain has run such a thoroughly loathsome campaign that it has become a story in itself. Salter should be happy the press has ignored AIP, Palin's windfall profit tax and wealth distribution in Alaska, Randy Scheunemann's Chalabi and Iranian connections, the Hess Oil administrative employees that donated $30,000 to the campaign, etc..

[SanityNowPlease]

of course they and their adherents conveniently "forget" the facts because the facts don't support their positions

[Paisano]

No...you see a poorly run campaign!