The Left Goes After Sen. John McCain

By: Jaclyn Schiff

(iStockphoto)

This column was written by John McIntyre.

John McCain has been the darling of the U.S. media since his 2000 slugfest with George W. Bush for the Republican nomination. McCain has studiously courted this media approval, but with the senator's eyes set on 2008, McCain realizes the coziness with the press is a double-edged sword and an actual impediment to the GOP nomination.

It's amusing to watch the slow, yet inevitable shift in the media's attitude toward their favorite GOP politician these past six years. You always knew that if McCain were to get the Republican nomination in 2008, all of his liberal media pals who had been singing his praises for years as a backdoor way to criticize President Bush and the GOP would find creative ways to suddenly portray McCain as a danger to the Republic.

What's interesting is that this shift is occurring now in 2006 and is, ironically, strengthening McCain's chances for the GOP nomination and actually lessening the chances of Democrats winning back the White House in 2008. It doesn't matter what the state of the Bush Presidency may be two years from now; McCain will beat the overwhelming Democrat favorite, Senator Hillary Clinton, in just about every scenario.

It's possible a moderate like former Virginia Governor Mark Warner could beat McCain, but the bottom line is that any Democratic nominee is almost a certain loser to Senator McCain running as the GOP nominee. (A caveat to that rosy scenario for Republicans is a brutal nomination battle where McCain manages to capture the nomination but angers enough conservatives to give Democrats a window for victory)

Fully aware of McCain's stratospheric appeal to independents and swing voters, the left has begun its assault on the McCain image. Two weeks ago The New York Times' leading partisan, Paul Krugman, accused McCain of being "The Right's Man." Over the weekend on "The Chris Mathews Show" one of the panelists, Julio Cesar Ortiz, opined "He's changed since I first met him in 2001, when I got to Arizona. So has the feeling of the people who have voted for him. He is not to be trusted." Translation: When McCain is not beating up on George Bush or taking cheap shots at Republicans, he is not to be trusted. Yesterday in the Washington Post, E.J. Dionne joined the chorus, lamenting "The New (Less Interesting) John McCain."

What is revealing in the Ortiz comment is the line "since I first met him in 2001." McCain has been such a public figure since his presidential run in 2000 that most Americans only know him from his public persona the last six years and his Vietnam POW history almost 40 years ago. His 18-year solidly conservative record in Congress from 1982-2000 was conveniently overlooked by fawning members of the media and is thus not part of the public's current impression of John McCain.

Krugman's salvo against McCain is a harbinger of more to come and is a blatant attempt to begin the process of changing that impression:

The bottom line is that Mr. McCain isn't a moderate; he's a man of the hard right. How far right? A statistical analysis of Mr. McCain's recent voting record, available at www.voteview.com, ranks him as the Senate's third-most conservative member.