Free Ride for McCain

Clinton may be trying to get mileage out of claiming that the Mainstream Media is giving Obama a free ride, of not delving into his weaknesses very deeply and of hyping his strengths. But it is McCain who is getting the free ride. There's now a book with that name: "Free Ride: John McCain and the Media" by David Brock and Paul Waldman. McCain has learned how to buddy up to reporters even better than Bush has (who is famous for his Crawford barbecues in which he says if you're nice to me I'll invite you back). McCain does it by:

Exploiting his POW status. Yeah, Kerry was a war hero too and was Swiftboated. But McCain does it with frequent reminders of his war experience, "Listen, Sonny. I'm a war hero in this time of war and you're not. Make me look good as I talk about education in America."

Capitalizing on his campaign finance reform to portray himself as a maverick even though is voting record is otherwise solidly conservative and that reform didn't turn off the spigots of soft money.

Knowing how to suck up to reporters. There were lots of jokes about Bush being the kind of prez. a regular joe could have a beer with. Forget the regular guy, just have beer with the reporters. Be sure to stroke their egos and tell them they will have continued access to rambling interviews whenever they want. Soon they'll speak about your campaign using "we" instead of "him." It got so bad that McCain came in fourth in Iowa and the media swooned over how well he had done. He gets to portray himself as war hero, everyman, insider, and maverick all at once while the media ignores the way he blew past his spending limit and thumbed his nose at the FEC among other things.

The saving hope may be that the under 25 crowd -- those coming out in droves for Obama -- don't get their news from the Mainstream Media. Alas, those that can tend not to vote. We'll see if disgust with Bush and interest in Obama changes their minds about voting.