Originally Posted By jonvn Stories like this. No one with any brains at all runs for office in this country. We are left with people who are mediocre do nothings that have no sense of anything except how to stay out of trouble. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/20/politics/p200151S89.DTL" target="_blank">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/02/20/politics/p200151S89.DTL</a>
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Yep. This is such a non-story. The New York Times' already shaky credibility is going to really be on the ropes after the blowback from this one. I think the intent here was to hurt McCain. What it will do is rally people around him instead. Months still to go until Novemebre, lots more of this junk will be attempted I'm afraid.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I think it was inexcusable that the article hinted at a romantic relationship when there is absolutely NO evidence that such a relationship ever existed. If you want to publish a story questioning if McCain did favors for a lobbyist, fine. But to inject a romance into the story with no evidence is yellow journalism at its worst. Now matter how low my opinion of politicians may be, my opinion of journalists is lower.
Originally Posted By DAR It's pretty simple. McCain was the one Republican that the New York times could like because he's willing to work with Democrats, he goes against his own party, the Times and other media outlets liked that. But now that he's going to be the one to challenge Obamania, well the press is ready to come out guns blazing.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy ^^ How do you know that the story wasn't planted by right-wing opponents to McCain? Do you think a NY Times reporter really did all the investigative work on this stuff? Somebody tipped them off, and if I were in Vegas right now, I'd put money on the tipper coming from the evangelical right wing. This sort of story is directly from their playbook.
Originally Posted By mele I guess we're all just so lucky to live in a world where there is nothing newsworthy happening and that the press has to look for stories to print.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <I think it was inexcusable that the article hinted at a romantic relationship when there is absolutely NO evidence that such a relationship ever existed. If you want to publish a story questioning if McCain did favors for a lobbyist, fine. But to inject a romance into the story with no evidence is yellow journalism at its worst.> Well, according to the link, "Neither story asserted that there was a romantic relationship and offered no evidence that there was, reporting only that aides worried about the appearance of McCain having close ties to a lobbyist with business before the Senate Commerce Committee on which McCain served." It's a little hard to suss out where the idea about the possibility of a romantic relationship came from, but from what I understood from TV last night, they came from McCain's aides originally. Not that they were saying there was one, exactly, but that they were worried it would look like there was. Something like that. It is kind of eerie how much she resembles both McCain's first and second wives, but of course that doesn't prove anything. It's worth noting, also, that this story appeared on Drudge in December, I think. I agree that if there's no more "there" there than we know now, it's pretty much a non-story. Of course, that's how Monica seemed too on the first day. It is kind of weird that his aides would tell her to stay away from him - and that part no one seems to deny.
Originally Posted By mele It is kind of weird but then, maybe she gives of really weird vibes. She is a lobbyist, afterall. ;-)
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy One of the interesting aspects of this story is that it suggests McCain was friendly with the telecom industry. If you actually go back and look at his record, the telecoms really hated him a lot. He was very much an activist on telecom issues, and earned the ire of a lot of the entrenched companies in the telecom world. But from the tone of this article, you'd think he was all cozy with them.
Originally Posted By planodisney I am not even sure we have mediocre leaders anymore, on either side.
