The trickle is becoming a torrent. Even the columnists, like Richard Cohen, who once solidly fawned over McCain are beginning to describe a different McCain.
Richard Cohen of the Washington Post has this devastating online Op-Ed piece, entitled "The Ugly New McCain"
Here's the link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Follow below the fold for some choice quotes.
Richard Cohen's Op-Ed piece admits that the press (including himself) has had a love affair with John McCain. Cohen attributes it not to "accessibility" but to McCain's storied "integrity".
Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. "I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said
.
Cohen blasts the "new" McCain:
Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.
The final straw for Cohen came apparently not through his own research or listening to the nonstop news shows, but rather -- surprise to all -- after seeing McCain on The View!
The precise moment of McCain's abasement came, would you believe, not at some news conference or on one of the Sunday shows but on "The View," the daytime TV show created by Barbara Walters.
The View's cohost Joy Behar challenged McCain on two of his false attack ads against Obama.
"We know that those two ads are untrue," Behar said. "They are lies."
Freeze. Close in on McCain. This was the moment. He has largely been avoiding the press. The Straight Talk Express is now just a brand, an ad slogan like "Home Cooking" or "We Will Not Be Undersold." Until then, it was possible for McCain to say that he had not really known about the ads, that the formulation "I approve this message" was just boilerplate. But he didn't.
"Actually, they are not lies," he said.
Actually, they are.
If Cohen is indicative of the general media, the rose colored glasses have fallen from the media's eyes.
McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains -- his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that's all -- but just as honorably. No more, though.
Cohen admits to being one of the journalists accused of "being in the tank for McCain", but denies that "accessibility" had anything to do with his warm feelings for the Senator. Rather, it was
When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story -- that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.
And now -- the money quote:
McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir -- the person in whose hands he would leave the country -- is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.
There's more, but you'll have to read the whole op-ed. But I think it is clear that the rose-colored glasses have fallen off, and once they are off, it is hard to put them back on. Remember how you feel when you look at an old love, and you don't see them the same anymore. Once you've "lost that lovin' feelin," you don't get it back. Instead, you look at the person and you think "What did I ever see in this guy?"
UPDATE: Sorry -- I was out of town yesterday and didn't realize this had been previously diaried. Should I delete or just let it die off?
Update 2: Timing is everything isn't it! But the comment consensus seems to be to leave it up because some people may have missed it. So I won't delete.