Why aren't McCain's gaffes getting much coverage?

He's getting tons of air time, I grant you that.

I just saw a piece on CNN from Candy Crowley, who I think plays it down the middle. But it was VERY critical of Obama. It was, "McCain charges this, and McCain accuses him of that..." without really questioning whether McCain's points are legit. It just took what McCain said as truth.

That being said, the pictures in the piece were visually stunning. Made Obama look like a world leader. You can't argue with that. Meanwhile, the picture of McCain yesterday was in a golf cart with Bush at Kennebunkport.

Maybe the whole thing's a wash.

 

I've seen more footage of Obama making a basket at a military base over the last few days than I have of anything McCain has done.

I agree with your assessment that maybe not getting much coverage right now will help McCain in the long run. But all anyone has to do is look at the nightly news or at the newspaper or magazine covers at a newsstand to see who is getting the bulk of the coverage.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilan-goldenberg/not-a-gaffe-a-fundaemtnal_b_114394.html

McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is as -- such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane [phonetic] was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history. Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership, and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. I mean, to deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think, does a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed.

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HuffPost's Goldenberg: One problem. The surge wasn't even announced until a few months after the Anbar Awakening. Via Spencer Ackerman, here is Colonel MacFarland explaining the Anbar Awakening to Pam Hass of UPI, on September 29, 2006. That would be almost four months before the President even announced the surge. Petraeus wasn't even in Iraq yet.

 

I don't care if you're Bill Clinton, Al Gore, GWB, Barack Obama, John McCain or anyone... If you speak publicly as often as you're required to for a campaign, you are going to fuck some things up.

I also think that the number of times the current president has misspoke has made some immune to a lot of it.

"Oh, look he mispronounced nuclear..." Obviously, if I listed all of them, we could be here all day...

"Oh, he called the Czech Republic by its old name..."

"Oh, he said his parents got together because of an event that happened five years after he was born..."

"He said Steelers and he'd always said Packers before..."

 

When you follow your gaffe by the patronizing "I mean, that's just a matter of history" . . . you better damn well get your history correct.

 

Reagan was spewing senile-sounding blather as early as 1976, and was hardly ever -- EVER -- called on any of it.

When they announced Reagan had Alzheimer's, I said, "how the hell can they tell?"

The media apparently decided early on that Reagan was an affable, ditzy old guy who said a lot of goofy things, and since he was what he was, no point in bringing it up. Basically I think mostly the same scenario is in effect with McCain. "There he goes again."

And yeah, Bush's eight years of idiocy has lowered the bar for everyone -- it seems normal that the president is a moron.

 

If you're a McCain supporter, you're thrilled it was Obama all over the news yesterday, and not this:

 

That's not the Bush I'm worried about seeing him with...

 

I still cannot believe that some people think "A few people at my shop were upset that (insert Democratic candidate's name here) lost" is proof of liberal media bias.

Once again, for the Nth time, bias -- one way or the other -- can only be determined by the news put out for public consumption. Anything else is misdirection.

And by any sane measure, if you think the media have been unfair to McCain, you need to see a doctor. As pointed out, it takes chutzpah for McCain to complain about the media when CNN and CBS have literally edited out his mistakes.

 

Yeah, but what about the freakin' golf cart..

 

It's more mobile than a tank

 

As a simple point of contention... It is not the Czech Republic’s “old name.” The Czech Republic is only a part of what Czechoslovakia was. The other part is now known as Slovakia. What McCain is referring to is a single country that no longer exists. It has since been divided into two different countries. The place didn’t just change its name.