For They Sow the Wind and Reap the Whirlwind
Since the Republican National Convention, McCain and Palin have been running against that favorite Republican scapegoat for all that goes wrong, the Evil Liveral Elite Media. The Evil Liberal Elite Media initially took it with good humor. This was John McCain, after all. Their John McCain. Their donut and bull session buddy, John McCain.
Then they unleashed Princess Sparkle Starburst (thanks Tena) to rouse the rabble, they realized that they were actually being nade the subject of real, honest to god hate speech. This wasn't "wink, wink its just for the rubes don't take it serious" danger. Real danger. Danger to both their profession and physical danger to them, personally.
And suddenly, the pundits are unanimously calling the second debates for Obama before they get the cover of the polls showing that he did, in fact, win. Suddenly, they aren't straining to make up phony "on the other hands" to protect themselves from attacks for being "biased." Suddenly, they're observing that McCain seems old and grumpy and erratic. Suddenly, even the Republican pundits are honestly saying McCain didn't do what he needed to do. Suddenly, CNN won't even go into the spin room. McCain's summer smears moved the dial, however temporarily, because his pals in the MSM were willing to take them up, play them over and over again, and generally give them credence and praise McCain for his political acumen.
Swiftboating worked in 2004 because the MSM bought into it as a story. If the MSM calls your swiftboating attempts "small" and "petty," as they were tonight, you are wasting your money.
In a campaign of marked by serial ironies, we have another. John McCain, self-promoter extratordinaire, a man whose entire political career is a product of adroitly playing the political press over the course of two decades, is going down the tubes because he disregarded the venerable old adage about the folly of picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel.
The irony of ironies: the media who was gullibly, blindly, promoting attacks on terrorists, suddenly realized that THEY are being labeled "terrorists".
Oops!
October 8, 2008 1:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't that "Sow" the wind? (No, not a pig joke--an "as they sow, so they reap" angle).
That said, good point. Of all McCain's flips in order to get elected, the one where he turned on the media struck me as the most surprising and the least well thought out.
October 8, 2008 1:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ummmm, probably. You may be able to detect a few additional signs of sleepiness in there, too. McCain and I were both up past our bed times.
October 8, 2008 7:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, OED 2nd ed., sow (v2a, trans.): To scatter seed on or upon (land, etc.) in order that it may grow; to supply with seed.
Though "sewing the wind" also has a nice poetic ring to it, as it "stitching together with nothing but rhetoric."
October 8, 2008 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
"What Was He Thinking?!" seems to be the most oft used tag line on anything McCain seems to be doing.
He wanders in front of the camera during the concluding remarks, bolts for the exit, tosses his wife in front of Obama, the "that one" comment.
How much more BS can the meter hold?!
This isn't even mentioning the "suspension", chosing Palin, the kitchen sink strategy with Ayers.
McPalin's organization can no longer be categorized as a "Campaign" it should be renamed and filed under "Circus."
October 8, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Be vewy quiet, they're coming! :)
Seriously, as a former journalism student, I know that criticizing the media is not a good option. Journalists can launch nasty attacks on their colleagues. But whenever someone from the outside tries to get a word in, they'll gang up on him (at least, that's how it works here in France). It often seems a bit unfair to me, but I guess it's quite a useful survival reflex.
October 8, 2008 4:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
France still has a functioning media. We've had whipped dogs (or battered spouses. Pick your unpleasant metaphor).
October 8, 2008 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Having worked with the media at various times, they nearly always mangle the story -- even when they are trying hard to get it right!
One can only imagine what happens when they are irritated.
October 8, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sow. Reap.
October 8, 2008 6:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
You're just a carping liveral.
October 8, 2008 7:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Watch out! Melior might accuse you of livel :-)
October 8, 2008 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
And suddenly, my parents, life-long repubs, 91 and 86, who had initially been enthralled by Palin, have concluded Obama is the man "to get us out of this mess."
What was remarkable was my dad's conviction that Obama will win. And he stumbled several times over mcShame's name. Couldn't even recall it. But he know's the name Obama now! And intends to vote for him.
Sane, law-abiding elderly Americans are capable of change. (mcShame is not among them...)
Thanks for your blog, Steve. I salute you!
October 8, 2008 9:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
I salute your parents. Seriously.
October 8, 2008 10:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
My wife's grandmother is in her 90's, and in a retirement home in Pennsylvania. Their voting precinct is located in the lobby of the home. The majority of them are voting for Obama.
October 8, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
(p.s. She's supporting Obama too, of course!)
October 8, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
WHO could possibly vote for that sloppy mess that is McPalin?
I mean they are left to turning over every old rock in order to seek and dig out every closet KKK case left in America to try to cobble together a win.
He who says "that one" is NOT RATIONAL and has crossed over into SCARY. Americans who are in control of their faculties have realized this.
October 8, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder just how many Republican votes McCain lost in the last four days alone.
October 8, 2008 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe these journalists are just realizing how important this election is to their own bottom lines. It wasn't until the markets started tanking that the media really started to call BS on the trivial stuff. Honestly unless something hugely momentous happens, this might just be a blowout.
Please excuse any typos nade as intentional playful mocking :)
October 8, 2008 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perception of risk to their own bottom lines has certainly been a powerful force in moving them from fawning to reporting. However, I really think it was the the way Princess Sparkle Stardust had the yahoos whipped up to the point of presenting actual risk to their actual bottoms that finally caused them to snap.
October 8, 2008 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. They love to dish it out, but fold fast when it's aimed at them.
October 8, 2008 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a Hillary supporter, it's hard for me to admit this, but Obama's lead in the polls is restoring my hope for America. Oh, the joy of having an attractive, vigorous, thoughtful, educated and well spoken president again. And the joy of knowing that even though race-baiting and hatred still exist, the civil rights movement has reaped what it sowed.
(PS: I know others have already teased you about this, but when I read "sew the wind" I thought "sewing the wind is about as hard as nailing jello to a wall.")
October 8, 2008 11:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Right after the debate, I flipped over to Fox Channel...even those guys were skewering McCain, basically laughing at him for annoucing the mortgage refinance thing as the spur of the moment thing it was, rather than a viable proposal that the groundwork had been laid for, etc. (Meaning: McCain had not cleared it with them first.) The only real holdout is Hannity, who fulminates and foams at the mouth, as if, as if he might be on some secret payroll for the Repubs. Why else would he cling to such an insane position?
October 8, 2008 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Princess Sparkleburst has finally, and emphatically, brought the media out of its self-imposed coccoon. She's bad enough that even the traditional water carriers could no longer handle the load.
Here's to that continuing.
And no more coverage of Palin rallies until she does a press conference. None. They hate the media that much? Fine by me. Campaign without coverage.
October 8, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
...but if you don't cover her rallies, then you don't get the coverage of the demagogue stuff, like where she baits them to call Obama a terrorist, and somebody yells, "Kill him!" Basically, we need Sarah-minders as much as the Repugnicant party does.
October 8, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
The insanity of McCain turning on his base (the press) after cultivating their favor for 20 years is something that will be studied for generations as a classic example of campaign-killing errors.
October 8, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I saw a blurb on Salon's War Room thingee in which they quoted a reporter who was quoting off the record sources within the McCain camp as suggesting that if they hold Obama to an eight point blowout or less, it will be because of the brilliance of Steve Schmidt's unconventional campaign strategy.
It was so obviously an attempt by Schmidt to try to salvage his career by portraying his incompetence and lurching from stupid stunt to stupid stunt as a series of carefully planned strategic decisions that I just had to unload on them in a letter.
As Chris Bowers noted today in a post directed at an oubreak of handwringing at OpenLeft over the Diego-Hotline numbers, an 8% lead is about as big as it gets in modern presidential history. Once you start hitting that point, polling noise has to start drifting downward a bit. So basically, Schmidt has taken the biggest lead he thinks Obama could possibly run up and then tried to get the press started on the notion that if Obama wins by that or less, it proves Schmidt's a genius.
October 8, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Princess Sparkleburst = too funny
October 8, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I prefer Princess Sourpuss.
October 8, 2008 7:39 PM | Reply | Permalink