Hint: It's not because he's got good judgment
On Sunday, the
New York Times broke some shocking news: John McCain is in fact president of Meet the Pressistan. Wait, let me correct that, because that's actually
old news. What the
Times did was
report on why Sunday talk show hosts like Chris Wallace have decided to give McCain the biggest Sunday megaphone of any politician alive.
When it comes to a dream guest, program hosts say, Mr. McCain checks almost every box: a senior Republican senator who can speak authoritatively and contemporaneously on many issues, flies secretly to Syria, compares members of his own party to deranged fowl and yet is a reliable opponent of most Obama administration policies.
“What makes a good guest is someone who makes news,” said Mr. Wallace, the Fox host. “To make news, you have to be at the center of the news and willing to talk about it in a noncanned way, someone who always come to the shows ready to play.”
Oh, please. Yes, John McCain is a newsmaker in the sense that picking Sarah Palin and suspending his presidential campaign were newsworthy items. But when he goes on Sunday shows, it's to get fluffed. Sure, sometimes he says
memorably stupid stuff, but as Wallace accidentally admits, the Sunday talk show hosts see their broadcasts as a game. And what they really want is to have guests "who always come to the shows ready to play."