One thing liberals and conservatives can agree on: Blame the Media

My good friend over at One More Political Blog has responded to my post about McCain's numerous announcements with the following:

Far be it from me to disagree with Fz, one of the smartest political thinkers I know. But if you watch the clip all the way through, you’ll notice that McCain is careful to qualify his statement, admitting: “By the way, I’ll be making a formal announcement in April…You drag this out as long as you can… you know, you don’t just have one rendition, you do it over and over.” While it’s quite funny to hear him describe his appearance as the “announcement preceding the formal announcement,” McCain is actually showing an admirable degree of honesty about the way these things work. I don’t think he is at fault here; if anyone is, it’s the news media, who allow these little games in the name of manufacturing 24 hours of news every day.

While I appreciate DC's compliment, I question his accusation that the media is entirely to blame. Even if we assume that McCain is some sort of "victim of the times," succumbing to the flaws of the times is by no means representative of the sort of honesty DC refers to above. A true driver of the "Straight Talk Express" would not play the media's games, if these are even "games," which is certainly questionable.

The media can only report what goes on; indeed, that is their job. However, DC seems to suggest that the media should take the high road and not "allow these little games." When did we lose so much faith in our electoral process that we started to think that the media should be more mature than the candidates?

Certainly, the media does have a responsibility that they may not be living up to nowadays, but our politicians also have a duty to not to provide the media with ridiculous things to feed this "media frenzy." We cannot blame the media for allowing our political candidates to do stupid things. We should blame those candidates for doing the stupid things in the first place.

Oh, hello John! I didn't know you were here!

So, apparently Senator John McCain formally announced his candidacy for president yesterday.

...

What?

If I'm not mistaken (and I read the New York Times, so I don't think I am), John McCain has been campaigning for president for a number of months now. Indeed, I was under the impression that he had announced his candidacy on the Late Show with David Letterman on February 28, almost two whole months ago.

What is this? Struggling candidates will re-announce their candidacy every few months in hopes of drawing media attention and gaining stature in the polls? Well, the former worked; I guess we'll have to wait and see about the latter.

I'm skeptical, though. I don't think conservatives will ever trust McCain, and now that he is fiercely faking conservatism (which may not be a sound strategy, given that Giuliani, an out-of-the-closet moderate, is still dominating the polls), he is losing the support of moderate Democrats who would have voted for him if he had lived up to his bus's name: the "Straight Talk Express."

Indeed, a recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports shows that his approval rating has hit a new low. And in other polls, he is losing in general election match-ups. Even to Hillary. I know many Democrats who have said "I'll surely vote for McCain before I vote for Hillary!" It looks like that crowd is changing its mind.

Here's the thing. McCain had a wide base of moderate support, and now that he is miming conservatism, they're deserting him. And what's worst of all (for him, at least) is that he's not gaining anything! Conservatives do not, and will not, trust him.

Looks like you've shot yourself in the foot, there, John.