The Media & McCain

I find myself more and more disillusioned with our media. I have for a long time been upset at the media for their tendency to copycat each other and for their focus on trivia or scandal. The lead-up to the Iraq war was a perfect example, for every major news outlet trumpeted the same Administration propaganda, acting as a megaphone for the White House.

But my disgust reached a new plane this past week when it was revealed that John Edwards had had an extra-marital affair. Just why this was newsworthy escapes me. Even if he were still a candidate, which he is not, it has no bearing on his ability to serve our country, and its revelation at this time can only serve to hurt his wife who is already struggling with terminal cancer. In the immortal words of Joseph Welch during the Army McCarthy hearings in the 1950s, “Have (they) no sense of decency? At long last, have (they) left no sense of decency?”

At the moment that this news broke, Russian troops were pouring across its borders into Georgia, hundreds of civilians were dying and the Olympics were about to start in China. I was trying to get updates on developments and so I turned on CNN. They were talking about Edwards and his private life. In disgust I turned to CNBC. They were talking about Edwards and his private life. I turned to Fox News. They were talking about Edwards and his private life. I turned to NBC. They were talking about Edwards and his private life. I gave up and stayed with a program where Lanny Davis, the former Special Counsel to President Clinton was being interviewed about, you guessed it John Edwards. Mr. Davis suggested that maybe we aught to have some of the people in the media being exposed for any dalliances. I wanted to applaud.

But the media isn’t my only area of disappointment that I have had lately. John McCain is a man for whom I never could have voted, because to me his mindset is entirely too much on military options rather then on diplomacy. He was too much of a cheerleader for that option leading up to the Iraq war. He has been highly critical of the Bush Administration for its use of diplomacy with North Korea, and he sees humor in the dangerous confrontation that we are having with Iran. Singing, "Bomb, bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of Barbara Ann.

Similarly on the domestic front he has been a strong advocate for supply side economics, also known as the trickle down theory, which I strongly believe to be erroneous and counter-productive.

I did, however, respect McCain for his integrity and for a measure of independence. Both of these positive traits seem to have evaporated as the bug of Presidential ambition has infested the man. Once McCain denounced vicious negative campaigning and to his credit he took exception to the Swift boat ads that were run against Kerry. Now McCain sees nothing wrong with impugning the patriotism of his opponent, accusing him of wanting to lose a war to further his Presidential ambitions. McCain knows better than that, and the old McCain would have had nothing to do with such slander.

At one time McCain would have had nothing to do with environmentally unsound drilling in our coastal waters and would have honestly told voters that such drilling would not affect the price of gas either now or in the future. But the new McCain stands there before his audiences and chants, “Drill Here, Drill Now” as though oil lay beneath their feet then and there. What a hoax. McCain knows that the reason the price of gas has come down is because we are using less of it, and that conservation is the only option that can affect the price of gas in the short run, but the new McCain wouldn’t tell anybody that because he wants people to believe that just chanting, “Drill Here, Drill Now” brought down the cost of gas. Next he will tell us that the tooth fairy did it. He has even run ads claiming that Obama is responsible for the rise in the cost of gas.

McCain knows that some of his supporters have been using e-mail and the web to slander Obama as being a Muslim, as being for the terrorists, and above all, as not being like other Americans. (Subtext being African-American). The old McCain would have denounced such slander and such racism. The new McCain used Obama’s reference to such attacks as an excuse to accuse Obama of introducing the race card.

The old McCain and his Straight Talk Express gloried in being the darling of the media. The new McCain denounces the media because he is no longer their darling. He tells out and out lies, such as Obama canceling a visit to the troops because Obama couldn’t take the photographers with him, when he knows that the press had not been invited.

The old McCain wouldn’t have allowed himself to trivialize the race for the Presidency by introducing Paris Hilton and Britney Spears into the campaign. The new will use any and all means if he thinks they may aid his ambition.

The old McCain…is he just too old?

I don’t think so! Being even older than McCain I can remember that Conrad Adenauer was an effective Chancellor of Germany well into his eighties. But Adenauer never showed any signs of losing touch with the world around him. McCain, on the other hand, has confused Sunnis and Shiites, talks about Czechoslovakia, a country that has not existed since 1993, and talks about the Iraqi border with Pakistan when the two countries do not have a common border. He has not yet caught up with the age of computers and finds them beyond his comprehension. His age is not a problem, but for a man running on experience and knowledge, his lack thereof is indeed worrisome.

Obama has shown a grasp of today, and the problems and geography of today. He has shown an ability to sit down with world leaders as an equal, and his connection to the Europeans makes it clear that an Obama Presidency would reinvigorate our alliances, which have suffered so badly in the last eight years. McCain makes fun of Obama's gift at oratory, a gift that is so obviously lacking in McCain. Of course McCain knows, as we all do, that this gift is an important one for anyone who aspires to leadership. The gift to inspire; the gift to lead is a God given gift that served Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy so well. It is not to be denigrated. It is to be applauded. The old McCain might even have had the grace to give credit where credit is due.

But the new McCain…well that’s the trouble - the new McCain isn’t the old McCain.