When Ross Perot ran for President in 1992, there was a point where I felt he just decided he did not want to be President. For some time he had had a lead in the polls. Then he withdrew from the race. Under pressure, he got back in and started babbling about Bush sabotaging his daughters wedding. He entered the race on a whim, and I felt when he started to realize he might actually win, he decided the presidency was not for him. This year we have Senator John McCain. His behavior has recently become almost as bizarre as Perot's behavior in 1992. Yet he cannot seem to convince the media of his own ineptitude.
There have been numerous comments in recent diaries questioning whether McCain is trying to throw the election. It is hard to avoid such speculation given the behavior of the candidate in recent weeks. The tone of his comments regarding Senator Obama has become so personal and so negative, that one has to question what he is thinking. While negative and personal attacks in a presidential campaign are nothing new, it is never the candidate who levels these attacks. Almost every campaign has a goon squad of surrogates for that purpose. I cannot remember any serious candidate making any statement close to the one McCain made recently saying that Obama would rather lose a war than an election. Each week he seems to raise the level of his rhetoric, as if he is trying to see how far he can go before he is called on his behavior. His nastiness on the campaign trail has been unmistakeable. Is it possible that at age 71, the Senator has decided that the presidency might be beyond his capabilities. He just does not want to be labeled a quitter. He wants to go down guns blazing.
The problem for McCain is the media is refusing to cooperate. No matter how nasty he gets, no matter how outrageous his comments about Obama become, no matter how glaring and plentiful his gaffes are, they are forgiven, if not covered up by the media. McCain must be thinking, what's a guy got to do to get some harsh criticism: racial epithets? We've heard some of his coments about women and he is known to use a nasty term when referring to some Vietnamese. Of course he's never been called on it.
I always thought the one thing a presidential candidate could not do was appear to take the campaign personally. The media will sense a weakness and they will use it to make the candidate look small. Apparently I was wrong. Perhaps McCain realizing that the media will never question his gravitas has decided to continue to elevate his rhetoric against Obama, in hopes that Obama will react in kind, knowing full well the media will not hesitate to question Obama's bona fides. It's the only other explanation I can think of for McCain's behavior.
Meanwhile the situation has risen to the level of Theater of the Absurd. The media is now hammering the theme that they are favoring Obama. I always knew that the Right would push this theme, but they don't have to. It is now all over the news. Apparently equal coverage is required for a speech before 20 in Berlin, Ohio and a speech before 200,000 in Berlin, Germany. Obama was gracious enough to take the McCain advice and make the trip, now he is being accused of overstepping his role as a candidate.
The media's motivation is not a mystery, rather a multiple choice question. Clearly they have an interest in keeping the race competitive. They have always been intimidated by claims they have a liberal bias. They seem to crave respect from the right wing audience, and they seem to also crave Senator McCain's friendship. Or perhaps it is out of deference to a preexisting good relationship with the Senator that they are showing him such kindness.