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The Media’s Effusive Praise Of Honest Straight-Talker McCain

By Amanda Terkel on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:39 pm

mccainplane.jpg According to the national media, no matter what Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) says, he’s always going to be a fun, straight-talking, regular guy. In fact, every little thing he does — whether it’s joking about killing civilians or simply grilling meat — is magic to reporters. Just today, when McCain joked about shipping adviser Phil Gramm to Belarus — a place still covered in radiation from Chernobyl — reporters gushed over the “trademark John McCain wit.”

As another example, in today’s LA Times, contributing editor Rob Long effusively praises McCain’s honesty in insulting college students:

A few weeks ago, John McCain made a little joke at his wife’s expense. Referring to her alma mater — Cindy McCain is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where she was a cheerleader and sorority sister — he called it “USC, the University of Spoiled Children.”

It’s not an original joke, of course — it’s been around for ages, possibly even as long as John McCain himself — but it said a lot about the man who wants to be president.

It says he’s honest. He’s a straight-talker. And he’s willing to speak truth to … well, not to power, exactly, but to healthy, fit young people in shorts and flip-flops. Which is more than his opponent can say.

Long is, most likely, being humorous. But his sarcasm mirrors the actual adoration by the media. A look at some other proof the media have used to demonstrate that McCain is just a regular guy:

McCain barbeques: “He was wearing a sweatshirt with a lithograph photo of his family — like a Christmas card picture. So just another grandpa at the grill.” [Mike Allen, Politico]

McCain rides first-class on Acela trains: “John McCain traveled like a man of the people Friday morning, riding an Amtrak train to Philadelphia after a late night of voting in Washington.” [Libby Quaid, Associated Press]

McCain jokes about killing Iranian civilians: “The guy seems like any guy you’d want to have around the dinner table or the bar stool.” [Chuck Todd, NBC]

McCain jokes about blowing up Jon Stewart with an IED: “Despite the fact he steps over the line sometimes. It makes him seem much more accessible to voter. You know, everybody likes a guy with a good sense of humor.” [Carol Costello, CNN]

McCain backtracks from his statements on Iraq: BLITZER: There was some straight talk, very straight talk, from John McCain today. Then, he seemed to backtrack a little bit. What happened?
BASH: He realized his straight talk was too straight, Wolf. [Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash, CNN]

Note to potential presidential contenders: Barbeque, make off-color jokes, and ride first-class on trains, and the media will love you.

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Yglesias

Who Speaks for John McCain

By ThinkProgress on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:28 pm

McCain says today that Phil Gramm doesn’t speak for him when he calls the United States a “nation of whiners” suffering from a “mental recession” but today is also the day that McCain sent Phil Gramm to speak for him to the Wall Street Journal editorial board. There whole question of whether or not the current economic downturn is real or else some kind of mass hallucination doesn’t strike me as a minor economic policy issue — if McCain doesn’t agree with his top economics surrogates about it, he probably needs a new team.

Culture

Sexy Names Watch

By ThinkProgress on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:22 pm

Chad Ford deems Carlos Arroyo the eight-best unrestricted free agent still on the market:

Arroyo isn’t a sexy name, but the market has a shortage of point guards, and Arroyo was more than adequate as a backup in Orlando last season.

Recalling my use-mention distinction, it’s true that Arroyo isn’t a sexy name (he’s a basketball player) but I think “Arroyo” is about as sexy a name as any other on the list. Certainly I’d take it over “Dooling” (number six, too close to “drooling”) or “Nachbar” (number nine, too Serbian). Nachbar, meanwhile, might be the shooting the new-look sixers need at a price they can afford.

Politics

Ft. Bragg military wives to protest radical church’s celebration of pregnant soldier’s death.

By Satyam Khanna on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:19 pm

Recently, followers of Fred Phelp’s Westboro Church announced they were planning a “gospel picket” to celebrate the death of a pregnant soldier, 23-year-old Army Spc. Megan Touma. The fundamentalist church claims “war casualties are divine revenge for America tolerating gays and lesbians.” The AP reports that Ft. Bragg military wives are organizing to oppose Westboro’s “plan to celebrate the death of a pregnant dead soldier.” Westboro Church followers have protested against victims of the Minneapolis bridge collapse and picketed dozens of funerals with messages such as “Thank God For AIDS.”

Health

McCain: ‘I Don’t Know’ About Contraceptives

By Igor Volsky on Jul 10, 2008 at 4:00 pm

Earlier, ThinkProgress noted Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) nervous reply to a question about why his top adviser erroneously suggested that he supported requiring insurance companies to cover prescription birth control. Looking confused, McCain replied:

I’ll look at my voting record on it … I’ll be glad to look at it and get back to you as to why … I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer because I don’t recall the vote, I’ve cast thousands of votes in the Senate.

Watch It:

Don’t expect McCain to “get back to you” anytime soon. In 2007, McCain similarly admitted to reporters that he was “not informed” about “whether I support government funding for them [contraceptives] or not,” and promised to “find out.” In the same interview McCain also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of condoms:

More questions: Do condoms stop sexually transmitted disease?

A long pause.

A stern look.

“I’ve never gotten into these issues or thought much about them,” he said, almost crying uncle.

McCain’s unfamiliarity with contraceptives has caused him to support regressive reproductive policies. McCain voted against requiring insurance companies to cover prescription contraception in both 2003 and 2005 and has consistently opposed expanding access to contraception. In fact, according to NARAL, McCain “has never cosponsored or supported legislation that would prevent unintended pregnancy or reduce the need for abortion“:

- Voted to “terminate the Title X family-planning program, which provides millions of women with health care services ranging from birth control to breast cancer screenings.”

- Voted in favor of “the domestic gag rule, which would have prohibited federally funded family-planning clinics from providing women with access to full information about their reproductive-health options.”

- Voted for an “amendment to prohibit distribution of condoms, contraceptives or drugs financed by federal aid without parental consent.”

- Voted to establish an “abstinence-only” program “that censors information about birth control.”

Politics

Despite all his fearmongering, McCain admits he doesn’t know ‘the nature of the threat’ from Iran.

By Ben Armbruster on Jul 10, 2008 at 3:54 pm

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) regularly hypes the threat posed by Iran, saying they are “intent on acquiring nuclear weapons” and even attacking Democrats for allegedly not recognizing “the threat posed by an Iran with nuclear ambitions.” But when ABC’s Charlie Gibson asked McCain yesterday if an Israeli strike against Iran would be “jusified” in light of Iran’s recent missile tests, McCain said that he couldn’t determine “the nature of the threat” from Iran:

mccainwebpic2.jpg GIBSON: Would a strike by Israel be justified and what would you say to the Israelis?

MCCAIN: I can’t know whether a strike would be justified because I don’t know the progress or the significance or the nature of the threat. I know the threat is growing because of the continued development of nuclear weapons.

Later in the interview, however, McCain insisted that the Iranian threat was nevertheless “serious.” As Matt Duss notes: “McCain has repeatedly demonstrated that, regardless of whatever experience or judgment he may possess, he simply hasn’t done his homework on the region of the world most likely to command the next administration’s attention.”

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Culture

Gymnastics super fit / Muscle in the gun clip

By ThinkProgress on Jul 10, 2008 at 3:22 pm

I’ve wondered from time to time if anyone take’s M.I.A.’s third world revolutionary lyrics seriously. The answer appears to be yes as Leighton Meester tells Vanity Fair “I like fun music, too, like M.I.A. She has good things to say.”

Also, I consider myself a huge Garbage apologist, but Taylor Momsem strains credulity when she says “Garbage is my all-time favorite band.” Meanwhile, it’s a bit shocking to learn that there now exist famous people who were two years old when “Stupid Girl” was released.

Politics

Media gush over ‘the trademark John McCain wit.’

By Amanda Terkel on Jul 10, 2008 at 2:56 pm

During a press conference today, Time’s Karen Tumulty asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) whether he was still considering former senator Phil Gramm for a Cabinet position. McCain replied, “I think Sen. Gramm would be in serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus,” a country still covered in radiation from Chernobyl. “Though I’m not sure the citizens of Minsk would welcome that,” he added. The media were delighted with his response, ignoring the fact that he dodged the original question:

Kelly O’Donnell, MSNBC: “Well that is classic McCain. He is using a sort of salty humor to make a point. We see that kind of a spark from John McCain all the time.”

Chris Cillizza, Washington Post: “John McCain trying to use the trademark John McCain wit.”

Watch it:

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Yglesias

Drinking Iraq’s Milkshake

By ThinkProgress on Jul 10, 2008 at 2:36 pm

Spencer Ackerman takes a look at the substantial problems facing oil companies looking to do business in Iraq. Some contracts were handed out recently, but those “aren’t production contracts, but preliminary technical contracts” and really pumping oil would need to wait on Iraq writing a hydrocarbon law and the security situation improving to the point where Western companies are prepared to send their people over. The larger issue, though, is that to make big money in Iraq you’d have to make big infrastructure investments in Iraq. Investments with an uncertain payoff:

The oil conglomerates “are the toughest negotiators,” said Martha Brill Olcott, a former Unocal adviser now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “They’ll work out a contract that insulates themselves from political risk. That’s where countries get upset — they paid too great a price to protect Western companies from political risk. That’s a problem: Iraqis might agree to one set of terms now, but you can imagine in 2015, if we’re lucky and it’s stable [in Iraq], then they’ll say, ‘Why the hell did we agree to these terms?’”

Now I’ll be quick to agree that this isn’t the only factor at play, but it seems to me that a healthy portion of what’s driving interest in a long-term US military presence in Iraq is precisely a desire to continue exercising “influence” in Iraq such that we can mitigate the political risk faced by your friendly neighborhood oil companies. Western companies don’t like it when their developing world investments are lost to nationalization, and their desire to prevent this from happening has often had a powerful pull on American foreign policy.

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