The Left Goes After Sen. John McCain

[ProSense]

From CBS, a wingnut writer defends their new hero.

The Left Goes After Sen. John McCain

March 30, 2006
(RealClearPolitics) This column was written by John McIntyre.

John McCain has been the darling of the U.S. media since his 2000 slugfest with George W. Bush for the Republican nomination. McCain has studiously courted this media approval, but with the senator's eyes set on 2008, McCain realizes the coziness with the press is a double-edged sword and an actual impediment to the GOP nomination.

It's amusing to watch the slow, yet inevitable shift in the media's attitude toward their favorite GOP politician these past six years. You always knew that if McCain were to get the Republican nomination in 2008, all of his liberal media pals who had been singing his praises for years as a backdoor way to criticize President Bush and the GOP would find creative ways to suddenly portray McCain as a danger to the Republic.

What's interesting is that this shift is occurring now in 2006 and is, ironically, strengthening McCain's chances for the GOP nomination and actually lessening the chances of Democrats winning back the White House in 2008. It doesn't matter what the state of the Bush Presidency may be two years from now; McCain will beat the overwhelming Democrat favorite, Senator Hillary Clinton, in just about every scenario.

It's possible a moderate like former Virginia Governor Mark Warner could beat McCain, but the bottom line is that any Democratic nominee is almost a certain loser to Senator McCain running as the GOP nominee. (A caveat to that rosy scenario for Republicans is a brutal nomination battle where McCain manages to capture the nomination but angers enough conservatives to give Democrats a window for victory)

more...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/30/opinion/main1458328.shtml

[Virginia Dare]

1. The left is doing the rest of the country a favor....n/t

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Everyone is to the left of where McCain is heading

[MadMaddie]

5. Actually Everyone is above where McCain is heading cause he is going

to go straight to hell for selling his soul to the devil!!!

[NYCGirl]

3. Why does every right wing hack (like RealClearPolitics) think that Hillary

Clinton is "the overwhelming Democrat favorite"?

[ellenfl]

6. remember, the rw thinks if they say it often enough,

people will think it is truth. it is the rw that is pushing hillary because they think they can beat her (and so do i). i haven't heard anyone on the left say the same except when they are quoting the rw. they don't think she is the favorite, they are trying to make YOU think she is. they are trying for a self-fulfilling prophesy.

ellen fl

[brainshrub]

4. For God's sake: Senator Clinton is not the frontrunner!

On one hand, I agree with the assessment that McCain would beat Clinton.

While it is true that Clinton has some support among the mushy middle, they are not the ones who push someone candidacy through the primaries.

And frankly, the mushy-middle would rather vote for a Republican than a Democrat who votes like one.

[ellenfl]

7. who are mccain's liberal friends? i haven't seen any in the

media. this is just another 'liberal media' talking point.

ellen fl

[Sensitivity]

8. McCain has played it well so far. Opposed * enough to seem Independent

Is kissing up to the RW enough to get the nomination from a desparate bunch of pukes.
Don't under-estimate McCain for President campaign. If he gets the Puke Nom the Democratic candidate could be in a world of hurt.

Bush is now irrelevant, except as a weight around the Pukes congressional neck.
Any thought of 2008 must assume John McCain is the Republican opponent with a lot of independents in his corner.

[_dynamicdems]

9. This two-face kiss-ass will never get the nomination. And I don't think

he'd beat a Democrat either. ANY Democrat. What a pile!

[BlueManDude]

10. actually this meme is just laying the groundwork for...

right wingers who formerly trashed McCain to line up behind him.

limbaugh was using this same talking point today.

people who say he can't get the nomination because he's not cozy enuf with the hard core right or the fundies are fooling themselves. they will back him because he will easily win the general election. they will contort themselves and do backflips distancing themselves from their past critisism of him.

this is just the beginning - "the liberal media is turning on mccain - he must be a good guy".

[AX10]

14. I agree 100!

The GOP will line up behind him and we need to have Wes Clark ready to battle him.

[BlueManDude]

17. they're so phony and predictable.

[mrgorth]

11. Agree with all this

We have to get out the word that Hillary is not our nominee. Write the letters. Call in to shows. Challenge these pundits to find the support for Hillary. McCain is an incredibly strong candidate but Hillary will lose all 50 states.

[eliphaiku]

16. Hillary

You think she's that bad?

I think she could do for us what Thatcher did for tories.

[mrgorth]

19. Unelectable.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. Well, my fear is

that she'll do for America what Thatcher did for the U.K.

[Minnesota Libra]

12. For me McCain is way too wishy washy on everything and too neocon........

....for me. But, that having been said, Democrats/Liberals will still need to handle McCain (the man) with kid gloves because of his war record. We pull a idiot Bush trick by attacking McCain's war record and we're doomed. McCain the politician is quite another matter entirely. If Democrats/Liberals stick on the issues all the time and NEVER breach that fine line of McCain's war record then his political days are about over, thank goodness.

[riona]

13. sometimes you have to tune into the msm

to see what the alternate planet is doing - you know, the one where hillary is the dems' overwhelming favorite

[BootinUp]

15. He doesn't even write well.

Nobody is gonna buy this crap.

[AtomicKitten]

18. McCain's appearance on the Meet the Press was disgusting.

And Russert, media whore that he is, gave him a righteous grilling, which later McCain sniveled about calling it an interrogation (it was!). It exposed McCain for the flip-flopping a-hole that I always knew he was, particularly on Falwell. He has his nose so firmly embedded in Bush's blow hole because he wants the Bush Wrecking Machine Juggernaut behind him in 2008.

[Disturbed]

20. John McCain, Hypocrite

John McCain, Hypocrite
by Doug Ireland

John McCain, the media's darling, has found a clever way around his own campaign finance reform law to take big corporate bucks in furtherance of his political ambitions while carrying water for the corporate mammoth providing the dough. But the national press is ignoring the story.


The Associated Press first ran the story of John McCain's odorous but lucrative Senatorial service to the communications giant Cablevision on the afternoon of March 7. But, while some local papers in McCain's home state (like the East Valley Tribune) have run the story, nothing has as yet made it into the print editions of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Washington Post, or any of the half-dozen other big city dailies I checked (although, if one searches the hundreds of AP stories available on the Post's website on its Politics page by clicking on "Latest Wire Reports," one can find it there--but how many readers would bother to do that?) One notable exception: the Kansas City Star.


Here's what the AP's investigation found:


McCain repeatedly intervened on behalf of a policy Cablevision favored -- one which "congressional and private studies conclude could make cable more expensive" -- while his chief political adviser, Rick Davis (who's masterminding McCain's probable '08 presidential rerun) solicited $200,000 in contributions from Cablevision to an institute that promotes McCain and pays Davis a $110,000 annual salary.


The Reform Institute was set up to promote McCain and his issues--especially campaign finance reform, embodied in the famous McCain-Feingold law. This Institute is "a tax-exempt group that touts McCain's views and has showcased him at events since his unsuccessful 2000 presidential campaign," and it "often uses the senator's name in press releases and fund-raising letters and includes him at press conferences," the AP says. And, of course, it provides a cushy sinecure with no heavy lifting for McCain's main man, Davis, as he prepares the pontificating Senator's next presidential run. Cablevision's contributions account for a whopping 15% of the Institute's budget.


http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0309-35.htm

[Jai4WKC08]

21. Bullshit

McIntyre writes: "You always knew that if McCain were to get the Republican nomination in 2008, all of his liberal media pals who had been singing his praises for years as a backdoor way to criticize President Bush and the GOP would find creative ways to suddenly portray McCain as a danger to the Republic.

What's interesting is that this shift is occurring now in 2006 and is, ironically, strengthening McCain's chances for the GOP nomination and actually lessening the chances of Democrats winning back the White House in 2008."

The real story...

The GOP-controlled corporate media, pretending to be liberal, is attacking McCain now in 2006, and thus strengthening his chances for 2008.

It never ceases to amaze me how bastards like this guy can keep bullshitting people into believing the media is liberal but just incredibly incompetent.