Well, it appears as though some in the MSM are starting to exit the "straight talk exress".
In a new Time interview with John McCain, done on board his campaign plane, James Carney and Michael Scherer highlight the fact that "Candidate McCain" is a far different man than "Senator McCain". John Kerry made the right call last night in separating the two men in his speech.
Also, to use the word "prickly" in describing McCain's attitude in the interview speaks volumes. When I hear that word, I think irritable and spiteful. Exactly what that wrinkly, old white guy has become since transforming into "Candidate McCain".
Here is the article: McCain's Prickly TIME Interview
McCain is clearly not comfortable or happy about the new direction the Rovians have taken his campaign. But rather than be a leader and say enough is enough, he chooses to go along with it and be angry instead. Good for us, I guess! It won't take much in the debates for Obama to piss McCain off enough to allow him to "go off" and make a complete ass of himself. I can hardly wait for that moment.
Anyway, here are some key excerpts from the article (emphasis mine):
And so when TIME's James Carney and Michael Scherer were invited to the front of McCain's plane recently for an interview, they were ushered forward, past the curtain that now separates reporters from the candidate, past the sofa that was designed for his gabfests with the press and taken straight to the candidate's seat. McCain at first seemed happy enough to do the interview. But his mood quickly soured. The McCain on display in the 24-minute interview was prickly, at times abrasive, and determined not to stray off message.
There's a theme that recurs in your books and your speeches, both about putting country first but also about honor. I wonder if you could define honor for us?
Read it in my books.
I've read your books.
No, I'm not going to define it.
But honor in politics?
I defined it in five books. Read my books.
YIKES! Johnny boy! Calm down!!!
Do you miss the old way of doing it?
I don't know what you're talking about.
Really? Come on, Senator.
I'll provide as much access as possible ...
In 2000, after the primaries, you went back to South Carolina to talk about what you felt was a mistake you had made on the Confederate flag. Is there anything so far about this campaign that you wish you could take back or you might revisit when it's over?
[Does not answer.]
Do I know you? [Says with a laugh.]
[Long pause.] I'm very happy with the way our campaign has been conducted, and I am very pleased and humbled to have the nomination of the Republican Party.
You do acknowledge there was a change in the campaign, in the way you had run the campaign?
[Shakes his head.]
You don't acknowledge that? O.K., when your aides came to you and you decided, having been attacked by Barack Obama, to run some of those ads, was there a debate?
The campaign responded as planned.
Wow. Just wow. Candidate McCain really has issues...
UPDATE #1: Joe Klein weighs in: (emphasis mine)
All right. Politicians hate these sorts of process questions--why aren't you hanging out with the press the way you used to do?--but John McCain's crude and angry response to my colleagues strikes me as further evidence of a man who has lost his bearings this year. I mean, he refuses to define what he means by 'honor'? How embarrassing for him.
For the record, I was one of the journalists McCain talked to about his anguish during the Keating Five episode. He believed he was unfairly accused--included because the other four were Democrats and the Democratic majority in the Senate needed the scandal to appear bipartisan. (I interviewed several of his Democratic colleagues who backed his version of events at the time--and he was found to be innocent of any wrongdoing.) But he did say to me--I remember this very clearly; it was at the Republican Convention in 1996 and it was not out of context--that the Keating Five episode was harder, in some ways, than being a prisoner of war because his honor had been called into question. He said there were some days that he was so bummed he could barely leave the house. I took these remarks as strong evidence of McCain's candor and humanity--they were the sort of thing few other politicians would have the guts to say--and it's very sad that that iteration of John McCain, the mensch, has disappeared into the maw of his angry candidacy.
UPDATE #2:
Digg it!