Dressing Up the Ranch
I've been wondering why Arizona reporters don't get much national exposure. Since McCain is running on "character," wouldn't reporters who've covered his local doings for a quarter-century be useful witnesses?
I'm far from expert, but I've been asking around and was advised to check out John Dougherty's stuff in The Washington Independent, exposing the smudges on McCain's pretty Arizona picture. Dougherty is a freelance based in Phoenix. He does his homework.
One of Dougherty's recent pieces exposes McCain's "ranch" as no ranch at all: It's a vacation home in a subdivision. But MSM unthinkingly call it a ranch. Google "mccain ranch" and you'll see what I mean.
McCain has a lot riding (sorry) on his ability to sustain the rough-riding image. He is, of course, the latest in a line of out-of-the-west, rawhide-wrapped Republicans: Goldwater, Reagan, Bush II. As Dougherty reminds us, Teddy Roosevelt launched the rugged individualist brand, and had an authentic claim to it. Now it's become shtick. The brush-cutter in jeans is not a sure-fire image, quite (see under: Goldwater), but overall it's a winning persona in a country that believes in making itself perennially new on the vanished frontier. All the more reason to peek beneath the persona and see who's wearing the mask and the $520 loafers.
Bigfoot media, isn't it time to get Dougherty, a real Arizona reporter, more exposure? Sunday show bookers? NPR?
Nah. That is not what our infotainment industry needs to stay comfortably deregulated as they are used to being.
August 20, 2008 11:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I did google "mccain ranch" and I got two (erroneous) MSM mentions in the first four pages, the NYT and ABCNews, buried in articles. Hardly an MSM phenomenem, eh wot?
Perhaps there was some confusion with the most predominant google listings for McCain's Ranch, Lucas McCain's mythical ranch in North Fork, New Mexico, from the old Chuck Connors--Rifleman teevee days (surely you remember, Todd?). Now if McCain starts referring to himself as The Rifleman, we've got a case.
August 20, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting. Possible that Google rejiggered its algorithm in the time between my search and yours? (Mine now agrees with yours, but didn't before.) I just checked the Nexis database for the last year, searching for McCain within 10 words of "ranch." They come up with 198 citations in US newspapers within the last year.
August 20, 2008 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don,
Google "McCain clearing brush on his ranch."
:)
August 20, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe its not Obama we know so little about, maybe its McCain. Take away his media personna as a "maverick" which is undeserved they way they use it*, and all we have is he was a POW and McCain/Feingold.
*The media call McCain a maverick as though its exclusive to him, as though he's unique. I can probably name over 50 more in Congress who are more "maverick" than he ever was. And I think the original maverick was Arlen Specter of Pa. though not so much anymore.
And how is McCain a maverick after all his flip flops?
August 20, 2008 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Neither Obama nor his surrogates, nor his friends in the media show any willingness to make sharp attacks on McCain. Glancing blows, yes. Weak-tea criticism's like Bob Herbert's yesterday about McCain not really acting like his hero, Teddy Roosevelt. "At last", I thought, reading the lead of the article. But no, this was not the red meat. This was "TR was an environmentalist and McCain isn't." Weak, weak. True enough, but this is not attacking McCain at his supposed strong points.
Where I thought Herbert was going and wanted him to go, was "Talk softly and carry a big stick" - another TRism that McCain is 180 degrees from -- that is, one that hits directly at his supposed strong point of "policy" on Georgia. "Shout loudly without even a toothpick" to back it up is more like it.
But no, Democrats don't say stuff like that, even thought it's true.
August 20, 2008 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
To expand further, Obama will make righteous and forceful DEFENSES against the "unpatriotic" charge but he makes few OFFENSIVE thrusts.
From the New York Times today I see that Obama IS making some low-fanfare radio buys in certain states on the economy. And the Times is all over them, citing fact-finders who claim that these reflect EARLIER statements by McCain, not his most recent ones which DO, unlike his earlier ones, mention "feeling your pain" in some vague Clintonian way.
This is ridiculous. McCain is still way out in rightfield on the economy, pain-feeling remarks notwithstanding. But the idiot "factcheckers" can get away with this because Obama WON'T go nuclear on Phil Gramm, who supposedly is STILL advising McCain on the economy. People, this guy is an enabler of the Enron criminals. There's nothing wrong with pointing that out. And if he doesn't, they'll nitpick him to death over the small stuff. If you're going to get criticized in the media, let it be for something that has force.
Or better yet, blow off media criticism as the Republicans do so easily.
August 20, 2008 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
sTiVo,
yes, Phil Gramm is a gold mine for Obama's opposition research operation, as is Ralph Reed, both dear friends and advisors of McCain
August 20, 2008 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Enron Phil. That's what they should call him.
Enron Phil, Enron Phil, he never worked and he never will -
but he says the recession we're going through is all in your mind. AND - he's John McCain's go-to guy on the economy.
August 20, 2008 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why haven't we heard more about McCain's role in the Savings and Loan Crisis? I know it's a long time ago, but it's not as long ago as his Vietnam experience--and the S&L scandal cost the taxpayers a lot of money and did a lot of damage to the economy. McCain has a history of talking like he's Mr. Clean, while actually spending a lot of time rolling in the mud with lobbyists. The Obama campaign can't discredit McCain's war service, but it can start showing the public other, less heroic, images of McCain's past. McCain likes to portray himself as the maverick reformer--but the real McCain is a Washington insider who gets a lot of money from corporate lobbyists and whose past is a lot more checkered than he lets on.
August 20, 2008 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain: The Most Dangerous Man in America
August 20, 2008 8:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can't lift arms above chest....Ranching reject
August 20, 2008 9:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with John Dougherty (via Todd) sTiVo and Purple State. A steady diet of Phil "A country of whiners' Gramm, the corrupt "Keating 5' McCain and defining McCain as the only wealthy elite candidate in this election...along with a good dose of reminding people of McCain's very bad temper. And hopefully Obama's defining of the 'McCain Brand' starts happening soon...
August 20, 2008 9:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I Wanna Be a Cowboy Lyrics (Boys Dont Cry)
Riding on the range,
I've got my hat - on,
I've got my boots - dusty.
I've got my saddle
On my horse.
He's called....T-t-t-t-t-trigger
Of course.
I wanna be a cowboy
and you can be my cowgirl
I wanna be a cowboy
and you can be my cowgirl
I wanna be a cowboy
(woman's voice)
Riding on the chuck wagon,
Following my man.
His name is McCain,
Can you believe that?
Camping on the prairie
Plays havoc with my hair.
Makes me feel quite dirty,
Though we all do sometimes
I wanna be a cowboy
and you can be my cowgirl
I wanna be a cowboy
and you can be my cowgirl
I wanna be a cowboy
Looking like a hero,
Six-gun at my side,
Chewing my tobacco.
Out on the horizon,
I see a puff of smoke.
Indians on the warpath,
(Indian voice) White man speak-em with forked tongue.
Or not.
I wanna be a cowboy
and you can be my cowgirl
I wanna be a cowboy
August 20, 2008 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the suggestions above to go after the lack lustre Senator from the gated community are great . Let me add this. This morning on NPR I heard Obama in Virginia say, "How dare you challenge my patriotism". Now guys, "How Dare You", should be stricken from Obama's vocabulary. Not guy talk. A little too Ashley Wilkes and not enough Rhett Butler.
August 21, 2008 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, Todd, there's another AZ reporter who has done a number of stories on McCain. The latest appears to be this one, http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/content/printVersion/848709, entitled "Postmodern John McCain: the presidential candidate some Arizonans know — and loathe."
August 21, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
The reporters name is Amy Silverman, and I suspect she and her paper, the Phoenix New Times, will soon be getting lots of national attention. They've been writing about McCain for decades and have a very nice archive of interesting articles about him.
August 21, 2008 1:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Losing houses is merely a symptom
keeping track is simply past him.
Here’s the recurring theme
that should be our meme:
The man’s a hypocrite.
He’s sold his soul to Rove, et al
four years after a racist hit.
Now he’s got colossal gall
to play off the same old fears;
save us please from four more years.
Denounces swiftboating then looks away
as the same scum print scurrilous lies.
It’s an attack book, so they say,
even libel is OK.
Vacuous phrases leak from countenance stony
his hypocrisy turns my stomach
the empty man’s an unmatched phony.
Here it is, the Republicans' trick
Run the horse race with smarmy schtick
and somehow win with a mental pony.
August 21, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink