Can't Catch a Break

Finally someone has taken the shovel away from John McCain.
With every public appearance, the GOP nominee has dug himself deeper, entrenching the perception that he does not have the knowledge, understanding, or temperament to take the reins of power. And so some merciful soul has cancelled the balance of this week’s press ops.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/23/mccain-on-the-run-cancels_n_114539.html

Senator McCain started digging this week when, having once upon a time craftily courted the press on his Straight Talk Express, he began to gripe that his former supplicants have left him in the lurch. Even if it were true, it’s hardly worth making a fuss about it. After all, every GOP nominee in living memory has complained about a liberal bias in the media, yet Americans voted for Nixon, Reagan, and Bushes one and two.

But we know it’s not true because we know that CBS edited Katie Couric’s interview with Senator McCain to conceal his customized timeline of the surge. So far from granting Barack Obama favorable coverage at his expense, the media is complicit in helping John McCain save face. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/205343.php
Incidentally John McCain made another mistake during that CBS interview. Turns out that the Sunni Sheik, whom he named as a beneficiary of the surge, was assassinated during it.

The series of events and remarks that culminated in self-censorship included not only those mentioned in previous posts: the Bush Administration backing in practice what Senator Obama advocated in principle (withdrawal of troops from Iraq, transfer of troops and provision of aid to Afghanistan, negotiations with Iran), and Senator McCain’s self-serving chronicle of the surge, but also the mean-spirited charge, hardly likely to endear him to anyone but hard-core Obama opponents, that Barack Obama would rather lose the war than the election.
It also includes John McCain’s claim that Barack Obama’s statement at Israeil’s Holocaust Museum was cynical and politically expedient, a charge that has been roundly and rightly condemned.

Perhaps the final straw for McCain’s minders was the GOP nominee’s claim today that oil prices fell in response to President Bush lifting the ban on off-shore drilling.
But the White house denied credit for the price cut, citing reduced consumer demand for oil. The upshot? The President left Senator McCain to twist in the wind...and cancel his appearances. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/23/mccain-give-bush-credit-for-oil-price-drop/

The supreme irony of the situation is obvious: if Barack Obama had been as inaccurate or intemperate as John McCain has been this week, the Republicans would deck him, citing his errors and attitude as exhibit A, B, C through Z of why he isn’t qualified to lead America at this time.
While it plays to our side, Senator McCain’s pathetic performance is regretful.
When Senator McCain clinched his party’s nomination, seasoned political observers anticipated a principled campaign. For the first time in years, they said—and we had hoped—Americans would witness two intelligent, earnest candidates with genuine differences debating the issues. Sadly, the spectacle before us is a parody of what we’d been promised. As Barack Obama proves himself a prescient, able statesman, showing the world a dignified, respectful, generous spirited America alien to its recent experience of our nation, John McCain carries on a campaign of misinformation, assailing his opponents’ character, distorting his position and otherwise engaging in the very kind of politics he had claimed to deplore.