Joe Conason at Salon Magazine has an article about how the press is coming to the painful realization that McCain is not the lovable Maverick they fell in love with in 2000. That he is morphing into George Bush and adopting his campaign tactics.
But, this began long before this campaign season began....
http://www.salon.com/...
Conason writes about the pain the press is going through lately as they begin to realize that John McCain sold his soul and is no longer the man they all buddied around with in 2000.
I read elsewhere that the Straight Talk Express Air no longer has bull sessions that they press came to love. The bench that was put there for that purpose is empty. The drapes to McCain and his aides part of the plane is tightly closed and remains so.
He rarely, if ever, comes out and speaks with the press anymore.
But, I digress.
Conason writes about the slow awakening of the press corps. to the new McCain:
For many of the journalists who regard John McCain as an unusually honorable politician, listening to his increasingly dishonorable campaign rhetoric is a painful and puzzling experience. They are openly wondering what has driven him to denigrate and even smear Barack Obama in a style more reminiscent of McCain's old enemies in his own party than the straight-talking maverick. They want to believe that he has not really changed, and that somehow these lapses can be blamed on someone else. Like a spouse in a bad marriage, they have yet to face up to the fact that he actually changed years ago -- or to ask if he was ever the man they once thought he was.
What the press did not seem to notice is that McCain began his transformation years ago in the wake of his bitter campaign against King George and his eventually selling of his soul to him in 2004.
His embrace (figuratively and literally) of Bush told the depth of which McCain would sink to and more in his quest for the White House.
There are times when a person wants something so bad they lose their bearings and self and values and stoop to literally anything to achieve this goal. And this is what happened to McCain.
Now his campaign is filled with Rove's underlings, including the his new campaign manager, Steve Schmidt:
As many observers have noted by now, the negative strategy adopted by the McCain campaign under the leadership of new manager Steve Schmidt follows a template created by Schmidt's old boss, Karl Rove. It is all very familiar stuff, from the direct assault on Obama's power as a media star to the insinuations that he is weak, elitist and not truly patriotic. All these themes can and will be amplified by "independent" advertising that raises doubts about Obama's religious and racial attitudes (or those of his wife).
It isn't Swift-boating -- yet -- but it regurgitates the same themes used by Rove in both the midterm campaigns of 2002 and the presidential race of 2004. Whether Schmidt or Rove executes those same old appeals to the worst in us hardly matters. What matters is that McCain has adopted an approach that was once thought beneath him. And that choice dates back to his decision to ally himself with George W. Bush and indeed with Rove, despite the vicious tactics that defeated him in the Republican primaries of 2000 -- for which he held them responsible.
The sad part is when McCain was being swiftboating viciously by the Bush campaign he told his 'base', the press that 'They know no depths'.
It now seems that the same can be said for the new McCain and his campaign of 2008.
One aside:
My one worry is that one reason Bush and Rove are helping is that they are desperate to see their policies and practices and criminal legacy protected and made the way of things. This means that they will do anything to make sure McCain is kept on message and new staff will do whatever it takes to sink Obama.
It also means we may see a campaign like no other. One that makes 2000 and 2004 pale in comparison.
We need to really think about what will be. We are dealing with very desperate people who will literally destroy Obama completely to keep him from the White House and undoing their work of the past 8 years. The torture, the war, the imperialism, the destruction of the environment, the selling of our country to the wealthy few and corporations, ect. ect.
What are we willing to do to help Obama, fight them and make sure the facts are reported and the press not cowed like they were in 2000 and 2004.
How hard are we willing to work to make sure Bush and Co., including McCain, are thwarted.