The McCain Electibility Myth
McCain will not beat Hillary, nor will he beat Obama. He is a media creation, and the media will destroy him by November. They’ve kept back all the negative aspects of his personal life (infidelity, violent temper) and his professional life (Keating five) for the express purpose of enjoying a double win: make millions destroying an American war hero and get a Democrat elected in the process. It’ll be a mini-Nixon moment in American political history.
He’s the perfect Republican candidate from the media’s perspective:
Lukewarm support in the base: If you kneecap him, the base is as likely to shrug and go home as to come to his defense. The main reason why conservatives are voting for him in the primary is that they think he’ll beat the Democrat. The only reason anyone thinks he could beat a Democrat head-to-head is because the media has continually presented him as such. Soon as that well of good will dries up (and it will), what will keep the base on his side? Loyalty? To the “maverick” that’s made a career out of disloyalty to the party?
Volatile personality: Just wait till he says something nasty to Hillary in a debate, which he will, or snaps at some reporter that has the gall to ask a hostile question in a live press conference. Field day, lots of material for Letterman and Leno.
Personal indiscretions: The man was seeing his current wife while married to his ex-wife. Put this up next to Hillary and guess what? Hillary is the picture of family values. And I’d much rather listen to marriage advice from Obama than McCain. The Senator from Arizona’s personal life is a day-time drama full of scandal, infidelity, immaturity, drug use, you name it. Great for the media, loads and loads of material to lament and moralize over, for late-night comedians to make jokes about, but not great for getting elected.
Corruption: The reason why the man wrote McCain-Feingold is because of this. The Keating five scandal and its aftermath was rarely mentioned in 2000, or in the process of passing McCain-Feingold in 2002. Why is that? Gotta keep the powder dry, that’s why.
Maverick? Or perfect Insider? McCain’s reputation as a “maverick” is a media fiction. The only thing between him being known as a maverick Senator from Arizona and a corrupt, pandering career politician is presentation. And who’s going to be doing the presentation come November? Answer: the same newsrooms that vote 90% for Democrats.
McCain is a media golem, likely the product of a Faustian bargain to save his image in the wake of what should have destroyed his career. He’s a straw man. He’s going to get burned to the ground come November, and he’s going to take the Republican party down with him. It’ll be a while before we recover from the kind of knockout blow we’ll get.
He’ll lose, and the media that destroys him will then commiserate with him and lament that the American people are just too stodgy and puritanical to see the value in such an honest man. After serving his purpose as the flower girl for whatever Democrat he runs against, he’ll end up keeping his seat in Arizona. He’ll continue being the “maverick” anti-Conservative, probably ramping it up, keeping the Republican party that didn’t support him off-balance and unable to deal effectively with the Democrat President.
2008 is shaping up to be a banner year for the media and the Democratic party.
I don’t know which country you live in, but here in America the corporate media did a fine job of covering for the feeble minded, dry drunk, ex-cokehead draft dodging president we’ve had for two terms now. It’s a nice fantasy to think that they’ll suddenly go back to real journalism, but only a fantasy.
ignatzh said this on January 30th, 2008 at 10:28 pm