Now McCain Is Going to Stomp His Foot and Pout

McCain is angry that the media is actually trying to hold him and his running mate accountable for their actions. Imagine that!

McCain Turns Sour on His Onetime Media `Base' as Election Nears
Heidi
Przybyla Tue Sep 2, 12:01 AM ET

Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The longtime love affair between John McCain and
what he once called his ``base'' -- the national news media -- is on the rocks.
McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, yesterday lashed out at what he
deemed ``offensive'' and ``demeaning'' coverage and questions from reporters
after McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, confirmed her
17-year-old daughter is pregnant.
``It used to be that a lot of those smears
and the crap on the Internet stayed out of the newsrooms of serious
journalists,'' Schmidt said at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul,
Minnesota.
Schmidt's criticism is the latest example in the unraveling of
what was once a fond relationship between the presumptive Republican
presidential nominee and the media. Starting in the 2000 Republican primaries,
the Arizona senator became a media sensation by chatting up the press in the
back of his ``Straight Talk Express'' campaign bus. The national press corps
freely mingled with McCain for hours on the bus, with no topic off limits.
More recently, though, McCain, 72, has accused news organizations such as
the New York Times, Time magazine and the NBC network of being unfair to him.
The campaign even considered pulling out of one of the three presidential
debates because it would be moderated by Tom Brokaw, a former NBC News
anchorman.
`Media Scrutiny'
``McCain's both been close to and now, to
some extent, the object of media scrutiny that he's never had before,'' said
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican.
In one way, the more strained
relationship may be an asset for McCain by broadening his appeal to conservative
Republicans who believe the media has a liberal bias.
``There are a lot of
people who don't like the press anymore and think they're out of control;
attacking the messenger isn't a terrible political strategy,'' said Darrell
West, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington who has written
several books on the mass media.
Yet, it may also have pitfalls. ``You still
need the press to get your message out and if you have an antagonistic
relationship it can blow up in your face,'' West said.
`Straight Talk'
As the relationship has deteriorated, McCain has stopped hosting his
once-famous ``straight talk'' get-togethers on his campaign plane. He also has
abandoned regular press conferences.
Instead, he stops occasionally to read
short written statements in front of cameras, like he did Aug. 31 in Jackson,
Mississippi; then walks away from questions shouted by reporters.
His
campaign plane is custom configured with a lounge area designed for hosting
question-and-answer sessions with the press. McCain inaugurated the lounge on
one of the plane's first flights and hasn't used it since.
Invitations for
the press to visit the Straight Talk Express also have grown scarce. Local
reporters are allowed the occasional visit, though journalists traveling with
McCain no longer are invited to drop in. He hasn't held a news conference since
Aug. 13.
Some of the campaign's new approach may coincide with the bigger
role taken by Schmidt, who was close to Karl Rove, a former campaign manager and
White House aide to President George W. Bush, known for keeping a tight grip on
press access to his boss.
Public Rifts
There have also been a series of
public rifts between the campaign and the media. On July 31, McCain campaign
manager Rick Davis sparred with MSNBC
anchor Andrea Mitchell in an exchange about a McCain campaign ad portraying
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as a celebrity.
``I'm happy
to talk about more substantive issues the next time I come on your program,''
Davis said, capping the testy interview.
On July 22, the McCain camp
assailed the media in an Internet advertisement and an e-mail to supporters.
``It's pretty obvious the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama,
some may even say it's a love affair,'' McCain's campaign said in the e-mail.
``The media is in love with Barack Obama. If it wasn't so serious, it would be
funny.''
On Aug. 17, Davis sent a letter to NBC News President Steve Capus
saying the network was ``abandoning non-partisan coverage of the presidential
race.'' Davis said New York-based NBC had made ``unsubstantiated, partisan
claims'' designed ``to undercut John McCain.''
Capus said he spoke with the
McCain campaign after he received the letter and ``there is no issue in terms of
a broader problem.'' NBC is owned by Fairfield, Connecticut-based General
Electric Co.
Combative Stance
McCain also took a combative stance in an
Aug. 27 interview with Time reporters James Carney and Michael Scherer, refusing
to answer a question about his definition of honor.
``Read it in my books,''
McCain said. ``I'm not going to define it.'' That exchange set the tone for the
rest of the interview: McCain answered a question about his opinion on
premarital sex by saying, ``I don't have any response to that type of
question.''
He added, ``Write what you want.''
For Related News: News on
the election: STNI ELEC2008 News on McCain: BIO JOHN S MCCAIN
News on the Republican Convention: STNI RNC

Sarah Palin, The Irony of It All

For a myriad of reasons Sarah Palin is an insulting choice for the GOP as Vice-President. She is a candidate that McCain choice, I believe solely based on her gender, which is reverse sexism. He must have believed that Hilary's supporters wouldn't care what woman they voted for as long as it was a human being with a uterus. In my opinion that is like voting for someone solely based on the fact that they have a penis.

McCain could not have picked a more anti-woman candidate on all fronts, staunchly pro-life, no opinion on equal pay for equal work, healthcare, or any other issue that directly effects half the population.
With all that being said it was released today that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant.

In the news release, the McCain campaign made sure to state that:
Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

From Feministing.com:

While it's obvious why they made this statement to assure the public
that Bristol was not coerced into keeping the baby (after all, she does have a
parent who is a staunch opponent of the right to choose and is currently on the
Republican presidential ticket), as my significant other pointed out, there's
some serious hypocrisy at play here. I mean, John McCain and Sarah Palin don't
believe women have a right to choose. It's absolutely absurd for the campaign to
emphasize the fact that Bristol "made this decision," and then push for policies
that take away that choice.
In reality, Bristol's actual "choice" was
probably not whether to terminate the pregnancy or carry it to term, but whether
raise the child herself or put it up for adoption.

But the reason that the McCain campaign chose to emphasize Bristol's agency in this decision was to reassure the public that this pregnancy is not coercive. They know the public wants to feel secure in the knowledge that it was Bristol's choice to keep the pregnancy. And coming from the McCain campaign, which opposes a woman's right to choose, that statement is disgusting. As Kate Sheppard wrote in In These Times recently, during the 2000 primary McCain said that if his daughter got pregnant it would be a "family decision":

"The final decision would be made by Meghan with our advice and counsel," McCain said, referring to himself and his wife, Cindy. When reporters suggested that this view made him, in fact, pro-choice, McCain became irritated. "I don't think it is the pro-choice position to say that my daughter and my wife and I will discuss something that is a family matter that we have to decide."

In other words: My family and my daughter deserve a choice, but no other woman can be trusted with this decision. This fits nicely with the narrative on both Palin's decision to carry her Down's syndrome child to term and her daughter's decision to carry her own pregnancy to term. Their decisions are seen by the antichoice Republican base as affirmation that Palin shares their values. But the underlying message that each woman had a choice is a validation of pro-choice values.

That encapslated it all....