Why So Surprised?

Short post today.

I've been reading and watching the news recently and there has been a lot of hand-wringing about John McCain's decision to immerse his campaign in the putrid waters of the Attack Ad Swamp. Everywhere I turn, people seem so distraught and shocked that McCain would abandon his high-minded principles and ignore his promises about running a respectful campaign. It's like the media can't believe that Mr. Straight Talk actually has a forked tongue.

Well, duuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Did people really thing John McCain would allow himself to lose to a negro named Barack Obama because of a little thing called integrity? John McCain has been trying to become this country's president for eight years, there is no way in hell, he would allow that dream to go up in smoke because of some stupid promise he made to be civil.

Seriously, people do realize that he abandoned his disabled wife, right?

The distress and shock in these media reports just tickles me. It's like these journalists never considered the possibility that John McCain's ego would not allow him to lose to a black guy. They can't fathom that like most human beings John McCain's morality is malleable, and all of his talk about honor, loyalty and honesty only counts when the situation is optimal.

Truthfully, I think that if John McCain were losing to Al Gore, or John Edwards or even Hillary Clinton, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But, to lose to some black guy with a Muslim name, well that's just too much for any man to bear. He can't stand to watch his dream, his life's ambition, dashed by a darkie. That cross is much too heavy.

This whole kerfuffle is an example of the media's unwillingness examine the character of folks they have deified in the past. A good reputation, much like a bad reputation, is very difficult to lose when it comes to the media.

Once journalists have placed an individual in the appropriate character box it almost takes an act of God to get reporters to change their minds. This is true at every level of the media business; journalists love to decide who the good guys and bad guys are.

John McCain has been anointed a "good guy." So, it's jarring for all of his media groupies to see him acting like a "bad guy." They are so enamored with their own intelligence that it's incomprehensible that they could have been so wrong. If they were wrong about McCain, who else were they wrong about? How many other mistakes have they made?

Nobody really wants to discuss that.