The Phoenix Network:
 
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Media -- Dont Quote Me  |  News Features  |  Talking Politics  |  This Just In

Straight talk

It’s time to cover John M c Cain again — and here are ten good places for the media to start.
By ADAM REILLY  |  May 14, 2008

080516_quote_manin

It’s been a very quiet spring for John McCain. The last big hit the Arizona senator took, media-wise, came this past February, when the New York Times ran a story on McCain’s relationships with lobbyist Vicki Iseman and communications mogul Lowell W. Paxson — a piece that ended up much worse for the Times than for McCain, who looked victimized by the paper’s insinuations of adultery. Since then, the press has focused almost exclusively on the protracted Democratic grudge match between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both candidates have been covered in exquisite detail for the past few months; so have their campaigns, their spouses, and sundry other subjects of debatable relevance (Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Clinton’s Bosnia fib, Obama’s flag-less lapels). It’s been easy to forget that McCain even exists.

But now, following Obama’s win in North Carolina and close loss in Indiana, the campaign has entered a new phase. Clinton is still a candidate, but it’s harder than ever to imagine a scenario in which she’ll win. And the press, as former Phoenix staffer Dan Kennedy noted in a recent Guardian online column, is finally switching into general-election mode. This means it’s time to start covering McCain again — not by trotting out the usual war-hero-turned-blunt-maverick narrative, but by taking a hard look at the strengths and weaknesses he’d bring to the presidency.

Of course, McCain has a well-documented knack for charming the press into submission. So here, for the men and women who’ll be spending long hours on the Straight Talk Express, is a handy list of 10 McCain stories worth pursuing over the next few months:

1) It’s the economy, Senator
This past January, the Huffington Post reported that, in a meeting with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, McCain said he “doesn’t really understand economics.” McCain denied the report. But as his then-rival Mitt Romney noted in a subsequent press release, McCain actually has a long history of such remarks. (One example, drawn from a December 2007 Boston Globe story: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should. I’ve got [former Federal Reserve chair Alan] Greenspan’s book.”) How does McCain assess his economic knowledge now? And what concrete steps, beyond a wide array of tax cuts,  would he take to keep America’s economic woes from worsening?

2) His Islam problem
McCain is going to argue that Obama is dangerously inexperienced on foreign affairs. He’s already hammered Obama for his willingness to meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But there’s reason to question McCain’s foreign-policy aptitude as well, especially regarding things Islamic. In 2006, McCain said he’d deal with ongoing problems in Iraq by sitting down together Sunnis and Shiites and telling them to “stop the bullshit.” This year, he’s confused Sunnis and Shiites on multiple occasions. Understanding Islam and the Middle East is absolutely essential to America’s national security. Does McCain grasp them well enough to be president? And can he demonstrate this understanding while speaking off the cuff?

3) Money and politics as usual?
Vague hints of an extramarital affair notwithstanding, the aforementioned Times story contained a kernel of a valid question: does McCain’s reputation as a reformer dedicated to reducing the influence of money on politics — a reputation McCain assiduously cultivated after he was implicated in the Keating Five scandal — square with his own actions? Consider this passage from David Brock and Paul Waldman’s recent book, Free Ride: John McCain and the Media (Anchor):

1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |   next >
Related: Travels with Sarah, See no evil, True believers, More more >
  Topics: Media -- Dont Quote Me , Mitt Romney, Judiciary, U.S. Courts,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments
Straight talk
These are good, watchdog questions ... but they also display a bias. You might look more closely at the phrasing and tone of the questions, and ask yourselves ... are these questions really impartial. Still, I'm grateful that extreme scrutiny is on the candidates, as well as very close analysis.
By Antigone on 05/18/2008 at 4:06:14
Re: Straight talk
John McCain and the savings and loan scandal, revisiting "The Keating Five." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five Speaks to character, corruption, "straight talk."
By Floridian on 07/31/2008 at 3:22:26

ARTICLES BY ADAM REILLY
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNIE  |  October 19, 2009
    Media feuds don’t come any nastier than the metastasizing spat between Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr and one “Ernie Boch III,” the pseudonymous blogger at the liberal Web site Blue Mass. Group. (Note: the blogger is no relation to the car dealer.)
  •   LATTER DAY TAINT  |  October 10, 2009
    Fifteen years ago, Glenn Beck was a small-market DJ with a drinking problem, no friends, and bleak professional prospects. Today, he’s a Fox News superstar averaging 2.4 million viewers, an inexorably successful author, and the leader of a popular movement that condemns government in general and President Barack Obama in particular.
  •   PHILADELPHIA STORY  |  October 01, 2009
    The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former Boston Globe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backing of (among others) his cousin Benjamin Taylor, the former Globe publisher.
  •   MENINO'S JUNKED MAIL  |  September 16, 2009
    Two years ago, when I wrote a column griping about the Boston media's apathy-inducing disinterest in city politics, Boston Globe metro editor Brian McGrory told me his paper had given the lackluster 2007 elections as much coverage as they deserved, but hinted that things would be different in 2009.
  •   BLOWHARD, INTERRUPTED  |  September 11, 2009
    Former Red Sox great Curt Schilling isn't the only prospective US Senate candidate agonizing over whether to run for Ted Kennedy's old seat. But unlike some of his potential rivals the Bloody Socked One seems determined to share his Hamlet act with the biggest possible audience.

 See all articles by: ADAM REILLY

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group