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Reinventing John McCain
REINVENTING JOHN McCAIN....Eric Alterman listens to Tom Brokaw and can't believe his ears:
Discussing McCain's success in the Republican primaries, Brokaw attributed it to the candidate's "indomitable will," and opined that McCain won by simply being "the most authentic...he wasn't trying to reinvent himself."This is not only wrong, but diametrically, screamingly wrong. It's not a difficult point — McCain won the primaries specifically by reversing himself on taxes, immigration, the religious right, and virtually every other issue important to the hard right. These policies were not only blazingly visible — Mitt Romney and others called him on it loudly during the Republican debates — but obviously destructive, as the last eight years have proven.
And yet, here is Brokaw saying of the candidate who by far has done the most to change his positions that McCain was "the most authentic...he wasn't trying to reinvent himself."
It is indeed a vast mystery. It's not just that McCain has changed a lot of his positions, it's the fact that he's so plainly changed them purely for the sake of political expediency. "Learning his lesson" on immigration in front of CPAC. Knuckling under to the Club for Growth on tax cut inanity. Demonstrating his right-wing bona fides to the Wall Street Journal editorial page by quietly watering down his energy plan into near uselessness. Embracing Jerry Falwell on the stage at Liberty University. ("Are you going into crazy base world?" asked Jon Stewart at the time. "I'm afraid so," McCain answered, in a rare display of naked honesty.)
McCain has been desperately pandering to the GOP base for the past two years, and he's been doing it perfectly publicly and with only the thinnest veneer of explanation. But I guess it's indelicate to mention it for some reason. After all, haven't I heard somewhere that he spent a few years as a POW during the Vietnam War?
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BTW, the following link is really scary. It's "The Fix is In ? Again!" by Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor of The Crisis Papers, August 12, 2008. This e-ticle explains the forces arrayed against Barack Obama and other, even semi-progressive politicians, but offers hope in fighting back. I consider it a must-read, or at least worth skimming:
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays8p/fix.htm
BTW, the following link is really scary. It's "The Fix is In ? Again!" by Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor of The Crisis Papers, August 12, 2008. This e-ticle explains the forces arrayed against Barack Obama and other, even semi-progressive politicians, but offers hope in fighting back. I consider it a must-read, or at least worth skimming:
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays8p/fix.htm
Brokaw lost any credibility he once had during the first few hours of the Iraq war. He wouldn't know objective journalism if it introduced itself with a punch to the face.
As for McCain, yes, he's a huge flip-flopper, but don't forget that he actually won the republican primary by default; all of the other candidates imploded.
By the way, Kevin, could you can the sans serif and go to a more readable font? Like back at WaMo?
Although there have been a few exceptions, McCain's base is still intact.
The same people who have covered for Bush/Cheney are going to cover for McCain. The same people who shredded Gore and Kerry are going to shred Obama. Count on it.
I agree with what I heard Begala say in an interview on TPM. The Democrats, and by that I mean Democrats other than Obama himself, need to attack, attack, attack McCain. The only defense he has is the POW story and every time pulls it out, it loses a little currency.
I don't know what to do about this anymore. Writing letters, etc just doesn't make a difference with these people. They are so out of touch and so unconcerned with the widespread devastation that the Bush-McCain party has wreaked that there's no hope with getting through to them.
We're going to have to get this done against the tag team duo of John McCain and the astonishingly right wing media establishment. Everyone is so surprised at how close this race is: all you have to do is see how people like John McCain's buddy Tom Brokaw is behaving to understand all of it.
I think the answer to this conundrum is that for many people inside and outside the media anger, and McCain's is never less than just below the surface, is a sign of authenticity.
Mr. Sam Wang, over at the Princeton Election Consortium relays some interesting information on just why Rovian lying is effective:This phenomenon, known as source amnesia, leads people to forget over time where they heard a statement - and whether it is true. A statement that is initially not believed can gain credibility during the months that it takes to reprocess memories from short-term to longer-term storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications may gain strength.
McCain's pretty close to Brokaw's beloved "Greatest Generation." Lovable old grampas can do no wrong, so uncritical adulation should be expected.
To be fair, I think Romney changes his positions slightly more often than McCain -- though it was certainly close.
Ahem. McCain's "I'm afraid so" response to Jon Stewart wasn't a rare display of naked honesty, Kevin. It was another pander.
You see how entrenched the desire is to think of McCain as "a good guy who lost his way?"
Your blog entry: seconded.
Dave Brown's comment about Mother Jones' far-less-readable blog typeface: also seconded. Please, if you can, forward that input to the designers who are redesigning the site. Thanks!
Slightly off topic, but I wanted to say that it's still August. Housing prices dropped again, and the stock market is still shaky. Our economic crisis hasn't even hit its stride, and the Mid-east is as dangerous as ever. Gas could be $5 a gallon on November 1st. Bush will still be screwing things up. (Not that I like these things.)
External, Republican-generated disasters aren't working to McCain's benefit, so, if Obama's numbers have taken a dip, Rethugs shouldn't be counting their votes too soon.
Plus, the new congress is almost certainly going to be deep in Dems.
What's the maximum number of times you can play the POW card?
Brokaw seems like a genuinely nice guy, but he is a lightweight news reader. His recent performances on Meet the Press have been weak. He does not listen to the answer and follow up. He just reads the next question.
He had the light witted Pelosi on last week repeatedly saying that natural gas was not fossil fuel, and Brokaw was too dumb to call her on it. He also listened to her describe herself as a studious Catholic and proceed to say the Church had not defined when life begins. Again, Brokaw said virtually nothing in response. He also let her get away with canned responses on Iraq and the surge, which she even had trouble remembering.
He also let her get away with canned responses on Iraq and the surge, which she even had trouble remembering.
I missed most of the interview, but I did hear that part. That was when Brokaw asked Pelosi with a perfectly straight face, "Why won't Democrats admit that the surge worked?," wasn't it? Mmmmm, very brianic.
Sometimes I think the press is just out of touch, like a divorced parent who doesn't care enough to visit his/her children. So they send a fifteen-year-old daughter a size-eight party dress with puffed sleeves, and a fourteen-year-old son a T-ball set. Is the media unwilling to make the effort to concentrate on facts long enough to notice that McCain has changed, and the "Maverick" hoody no longer fits?
Other times I fear it's all about the corporate media having a vested interest in keeping corporate-amorous Republicans in control of the country.
But in the end, I keep coming to the conclusion that it's just the media desire for stories with lots of conflict and tension. What would be exciting about the presidential race if one candidate were way out ahead? So they're perfectly willing to distort and ignore facts, and pass on lies as the assertions of "some people," to help whichever candidate is lagging. We saw exactly the same pattern, when the media wanted to portray the Hillary/Obama race as close to the very end. We saw it when the media piled on the Iraq War bandwagon to revel in the pleasure of martially-generated adrenaline. It's insanely irresponsible. That's today's media.
Bodoni Bold: You see how entrenched the desire is to think of McCain as "a good guy who lost his way?"
David Brooks in today's Times: I'll put a plus down every time a speaker says that McCain is a good man who happens to be out of step with the times.
It's hard not to be sarcastic reacting to this post. Your ignorance appears feigned to me.
However, taking it at face value, giving you the benefit of a doubt, here's the answer to your "vast mystery":
The media deals in memes or narratives, not in facts. McCain's narrative is that he's a Straight Talker. What he actually says and does is secondary.
And what Brokaw does *not* want is to be different, to stand out, to engage in any controversial coverage that might come back to haunt him (remember Dan Rather). No one gets punished for what's said about Dems.
Kevin wrote: "It is indeed a vast mystery."
Sensible liberal pundits must always act surprised and mystified when the "on-air personalities" of the mass media -- all of whom, like Tom Brokaw, are very highly-paid employees of giant corporations whose agenda is best served by having right-wing corporatist Republican presidents in the White House -- spout bogus, scripted RNC talking points.
The corporate-owned media is doing exactly what it did in 2000 with the goring of Al Gore and again in 2004 with the swiftboating of John Kerry: working hand-in-hand with the RNC and the openly partisan right-wing media to wage a campaign of character assassination against the Democratic candidate, and propagandize on behalf of the Republican candidate, to get the Republicans close enough to steal the election.
And now, as then, sensible liberal pundits scratch their heads in mystification and wonder when the media will "get it right".
What's the maximum number of times you can play the POW card?
Eleventy Billion.
And now, as then, sensible liberal pundits scratch their heads in mystification and wonder when the media will "get it right".
You'd think they'd have a bare patch on their skulls from all the scratching. But no, Charlie Brown keeps trying to kick that football. Maybe this time....
McCain's father was in WWII, one of Brokaw's passions, and of course we all know about McCain being a POW.
Brokaw is another of his generation who did not serve, yet could have. Hence the idolization and guilt so typical of his cohort.
... for many people inside and outside the media anger ... is a sign of authenticity.
And Obama's cerebral coolness a sign of weakness.
The same thread question is over at old WaMo digs, with similar answers. I basically want to like Tom B, but he's a bit out of it - I want to think, for being sentimental and not a willing hack.
The main point - we seem to have diagnosed what's wrong in the case of corporate-employed pundits of the SCLM, but we don't (?) have a clear vision of what to do about it, and how to do something about it. That should be the next phase of thought and discussion ...
PS: The equivalent thread title at WaMo is: "WHAT RACE IS BROKAW WATCHING?...." - since maybe I implied this thread title was there too.
BTW, the following link is really scary. It's "The Fix is In Again!" by Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor of The Crisis Papers, August 12, 2008. This e-ticle explains the forces arrayed against Barack Obama and other, even semi-progressive politicians, but offers hope in fighting back. I consider it a must-read, or at least worth skimming:
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays8p/fix.htm
I think Horatio Parker nailed it. Memes and narratives, not facts. Info-tainment, not information. The media sucks up Drudge's exudations so eagerly because they're (mostly invented) memes and narratives, neatly packaged and ready to air.
Over on TPM there's a post about the Obama campaign's deliberately low-visibility pushback against McCain's swiftboating. The pushback includes quiet conversations with station managers presumably suggesting there might be consequences to airing unsubstantiated Swiftboat smears.
Now THERE's a concept! (and about time, too!) Consequences for betraying the standards stations swore to uphold when they were granted licenses to use the PUBLIC's airwaves!
The only way to return the media to some sort of objectivity is to decouple corporate profits from station ownership, REQUIRE that news be bias-free, reinstate the ownership rules that the Bushies and Clintonistas scuttled, and return to the notion that the public's airwaves require station owners to SERVE, not pander to, the public.
Whether that's possible in an Obama administration is problematic, I guess. Not remotely so with McCain, however.
for many people inside and outside the media anger, and McCain's is never less than just below the surface, is a sign of authenticity.
Good thing, because these people are starting to piss me off . . .
"Eleventy Billion"
Ian, that's the Universal number...for 4 year olds and POWS!
Being Tom Brokaw takes up a lot of time each day. This is why we, who spend 30-90 minutes reading blogs and news each day, for which most of us do just as a hobby, know more about policy and actual facts than a fair amount of political journalists.