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The Right Strengthens its Hold on McCain, the Media Refuse to Notice
What is it going to take for the media to snap out of its starry-eyed -- stuck in 2000 -- view of John McCain?
Despite an avalanche of evidence showing that McCain the Maverick has long ago been replaced by McCain the Pandering Pawn of the Party's Right Wing, the press refuses to believe its own eyes.
The latest demonstration of the enormous lag time between the presentation of a new reality and the media's willingness to update the conventional wisdom comes via those bastions of the traditional media, The New Yorker and the New York Times.
The latest New Yorker features a loving 7,000+ word profile of McCain by Ryan Lizza that portrays him as a moderate who has "the rare opportunity to reinvent what it means to be a Republican."
Let's see, McCain has bowed to the party's lunatic fringe on tax cuts, immigration, the intolerance of religious bigots, and torture... so exactly how is he reinventing what it means to be a Republican? By shortening the amount of time it takes before a candidate is hijacked by the Right, perhaps?
Don't forget, George W. Bush, circa 1999, was presented as something of a maverick -- a Republican who espoused "compassionate conservatism," got along with Democrats in Texas, was going to win over Latinos, end his party's longstanding hostility toward minorities, and govern from the center.
"My friends, this is going to be a different kind of convention for a different kind of Republican," said 2000 RNC chairman Jim Nicholson at that year's convention. "Gov. Bush has shown time and time again that he is a different kind of Republican," echoed Bush spokesman Ray Sullivan on the campaign trail.
That different kind of Republican evaporated the moment W's hand hit the Bible on inauguration day. McCain hasn't waited that long. He's already offered his proof of fidelity to the Right.
But Lizza doesn't want to buy it. Even as he lists all the examples of McCain's "brazen pandering," he insists that McCain is "principled" and "has a record of sticking to a position even when it puts his political future at risk." Other than all the times he's shifted his position in order to advance his political future, I suppose.
The media are so reluctant to give up their entrenched view of McCain that "principled" and "pandering" are no longer seen as mutually exclusive terms. Indeed, that was the animating premise of Nicholas Kristof's head-scratching column in Sunday's New York Times: that McCain has become the world's most principled panderer.
"Mr. McCain truly has principles that he bends or breaks out of desperation and with distaste," writes Kristof. In Kristof's through-the-looking-glass world, it's apparently a higher order of pandering if you start with deeply held core convictions that you trash in the name of political expediency while feeling really bad about it.
Sure, she's a whore, but she wears an abstinence promise ring and feels totally guilty when she stuffs the money in her bra, so she's not like all the other whores.
In the New Yorker piece, Newt Gingrich, in full stand up comedy mode, claims that McCain's looming nomination "is the victory of the moderate wing" of the GOP -- of which he now counts himself a member! -- and that with McCain, "for the first time since Eisenhower, you have someone who has clearly not accommodated the conservative wing winning the nomination. That is a remarkable achievement."
It says everything you need to know about how strong the Right's stranglehold on the Republican Party has become that Newt Gingrich, the original barbarian at the GOP gate leading the 1994 right wing revolution, is now considered a voice of moderation. And that capitulating on torture and tax cuts and immigration and intolerance and out-Bushing Bush on Iraq can be seen as "not accommodating" the right. Memo to Newt: making that claim while maintaining a straight face is the true "remarkable achievement."
Despite the disastrous failures of the Right on everything from Iraq to the economy to health care to the environment to global warming to civil liberties to national security, the lunatics running the Republican asylum are stronger than ever.
That's why Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Ann Coulter have felt so comfortable taking on the role of rhetorical dominatrixes, forcing McCain to bow down and lick their boots, and why McCain -- "with distaste," of course -- has so thoroughly obliged. Even after all-but-locking-up the nomination, he still felt compelled to jettison his most deeply held belief and vote against the torture ban.
"Please, mistress -- may I have another?"
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
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The GOP does not have a "lunatic fringe." It has a lunatic center. The rational wing of the GOP is now called "the Democratic Party."
Big A...is that like the free pass Obama has on the media?
i think it is high time to call the lunatic fringe on the right on their bluff.
time for someone, anyone to look them straight in their crossed eyes and say, "FINE, go ahead and vote for the Democrat. You will lose more than I will!"
i often wonder why on earth these people resort to smear campaigns but then skip the best attacks. Like i care who is shtooping whom.
Where was "At the end of the Day, Dubya, 9/11 happened on your watch, and nothing you can say will ever change that YOU failed to keep America safe?" Nobody ever said it. Kerry bent over for the swiftboaters, and then wanted to be the guy to stand up for us against our External enemies?
This is STILL a good argument for Democrats. Don't vote for the war, Hillary, shout from the rooftops that you do not intend to compound Bush's massive mistakes leading to 9/11 by weakening our defenses and squandering international good will by declaring war on a totally unrelated nation! THAT would have made you "man enough" to run the country!!
Same goes for McCain now. If he can't stand up to a bunch of inbred trailer trash who think that dinosaurs and Jesus were running around together in a garden with Knowledge being forbidden because ignorance is next to Godliness, then how the F*** is he gonna stand up to Syria, North Korea, China, or the "islamofascists," whoever the hell they are?
Pandering is cowardice. Period. I'm looking to Nader now.
the GOP is the party of Limbaugh, not the party of Lincoln and the coordinated talk radio attack on the NYT, like the one on CBS that got Rather fired, will be felt by the messenger and other would be messengers.
bush had more baggage than mccain and by nov the republican capacity for denial and hypocrisy will once again be apparent, thanks in large part to the talk radio monopoly and our lack of a Fairness Doctrine.
I think this might be your best work yet, Arianna.
Some of the people commenting here are nuttier than McCain is!!!! That seems to take a lot to do these days. McCain is not Republican! If he were I would probably vote for him. But, I'm not! Not until the the Republican party loses the religious nuts that have taken over their party. Not until they get a little sanity back in their party. I think Obama is as ready to run the country as McCain is. McCain is the same kind of military nut case that Bush is. That's all he thinks about is...attack...attack...attack! It doesn't make any difference if it's the wrong people! It's going to be a disaster if he keeps this mess known as Iraq going! It's eventually going to bankrupt this country! So all of you fair weather Democrat's had better wake up to the danger looming in this man! Use your brains for once! If that's possible?????
Arianna: You are someone with the loveliest manners of anyone I've ever met ... manners than come from the old fashioned place of actually caring about the feelings of others. And, you do "scathing" with more wit and humor than almost anyone I know ... remind me NEVER to piss you off ... Suzie Kidder
Gotta go along witcha on the manners, and she has the loveliest smile..........but you'd bettah watch out for those sharp elbows.
McCain sounded like a moderate once. But do we need the media to tell us that he's been galloping right ever since he lost to Bush on the torture legislation (all the while speaking self-congratulation for his "victory")?
The true extent of the bravery McCain showed all those years ago can NEVER be understood by someone who has not gone through it yet so many would diminish it. And none seem to understand the lesson it must have given him. The lesson was to survive while seeing that no one he felt responsible for was harmed. McCain has seemed to cower before the Far Right just as he might have seemed to cower before the VC. They held his physical life in their hands. The Far Right hold his political life in their hands. So he lowers his eyes from the guns, seeming to cower. A sham. When he was honest, just about everyone shot him down and he lost his chance for a bid at the presidency. So he learned to survive by seeming to cower and now he has his chance. If he becomes president, within the first year he will show that he does not cower, or back down, or play political games. The time to play political games is to get the presidency. And can anyone really argue that, other than his image, which he has never cared about, anyone has been hurt by these games?
Nonsense.
What you're saying is he's brave except when he must be a coward. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
No one is challenging McCain's bravery during Vietnam. What we have issue with is his whoring of his political ethos over the past few years.
Remember, the people shooting him down for being honest were *Republicans*. Dems take issue with his recent flip-flopping and caving in to people like Jerry Falwell.
bravery?
recklessness. disobeyed orders, crashed equipment, got captured. endured, survived. hates gooks. forever changed.
now a globalist sword slinging quasi-neocon. certainly not conservative but certainly not a nationalist looking out for our economic freedom, sovereignty or peace.
sorry, i don't want him in charge.
Presidential Fever does strange things to people.
McCain and even Rudy were favorites of my in 2004 and should have done one of three things:
1) Together, in any order, ran against Bush. Surely by that time they knew the score.
2) Backed Kerry to get rid of W (Worst ever).
3) Stayed out of the fray and remained neutral.
Instead both prostituted themselves for a run in 2008 and John continues to do so by pandering to the extreme right. Perhaps McCain didn't want to run against an incumbent Kerry, knowing 2008 would be his last shot.
The straight talk express has been de-railed.
How come no candidate or the media in its questions asks anything about the Israeli-Palistinian issue, the root cause of terrorism?
rmartina, we are not called the "United States of Israel" for nothing. This country has stood by, toeing the dirt, scuffing the dust, hands behind its back and Aw, shucks!-ing it for years. Israel did not exist twenty years before they were attacking another nation on trumped-up reasoning, just as we attacked Iraq. It is not "politically correct" to say out loud Israel has behaved like a boar hog with a nail in its foot. I'm not saying the holocaust did not happen, nor am I saying it was not a terrible thing to have happen or to go through. Also, I am part Jewish. That said, Israel needs to get over itself and this country needs to stop pandering to it. Viscious behavior is wrong and when Israel attacked Lebanon in 1967 they should have been slammed down, HARD! Instead there was a bit of tut-tutting and hand-wringing and "Well, you know what they went through in Germany". Bullshit! What they went through should NEVER have happened, should NEVER happen AGAIN, but it does NOT give the Jews the right to attack their neighbors on the strength of "They might....". If in fact OUR OWN government (bushit and cronies) did not have 9/11 staged to take the eyes off the problem coming to a head with Enron, the best explanation I can come up with is our ongoing support of Israel no matter what it does to whom. These chickens are going to come home to roost, as they did on 9/11. Israel needs to be slapped down, they think they have right to dictate how everyone else in the middle east is going to behave. You are right when you speak of it. No one is going to commit political suicide by speaking this plain truth. Since I have been doing so, I have told my friends not to be surprised if I turn up dead under "accidental" circumstances. So much for our freedom in this country. Only if you say what is expected of you.
Arianna, what does it say about your column attempting to show the media is too soft on McCain when the Huff. Post survey shows half the people agree and half disagree with you.
Interesting that of the 41,000 votes, they were split 50/50. Maybe you could learn more about the subject and try again later.
Without your column appearing, would more people have said the media is not too soft on McCain?
Arianna,
I used to love reading your column, back when you were a conservative and appeared on Ben Stein's game show with Peggy Noonan. What happened? Why are you a flaming liberal? Did you drink the same crazy juice that Hillary drank in college?
Come back to the party of Lincoln, Reagan, and Bush. We won't ask any questions.
Hey ckfred, LEAVE ARIANNA ALONE! The party of Lincoln has been abducted by incompetent, greedy, so called "conservatives". Lincoln was highly intelligent...can't say that about the current man in the white house.
Arianna, I love that you have given us a voice. Thank you for all that you do.
Seems like all the candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, have been flip-flopping on topics like fish out of water. Personally, I don't like the thought of any of them being elected President. I find it hard to believe either party couldn't find better candidates. It's kind of depressing actually. Maybe it is time for a viable third party to emerge.
olehippi - ron paul man.
Maybe McCain realizes that the only way he can get the vote of the so called "traditional conservatives" or "Reaganites" is by pretending to agree with their policies. If he strokes their egos now, he might be able to gain their support, which he will need to win the election. After he gets in he can tell them where to go and do what he thinks is best to try and turn things around. Once that occurs, it will be too late for those nut jobs to attack him, providing his plans work for the best. The whole thing of pretending to be someone you're not to win votes is a bad system. Unfortunately, most politicians abide by it, and, those who don't, usually don't last too long.
Hope made me read Arianna's post about McCain. You just don't know the change it has made in me. I know have hope that change will occur and I hope for that change to come soon before my hope runs out and change is just another word for what hope I have left that change will occur.
Not certain what I just said but it was with a great deal of hope that change will happen. First time in my adult life I ever hoped for
change.
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