Shorter David Brooks: The American people have forced John McCain to run a dishonorable campaign. Especially -- gasp -- those young journalists!
McCain started out with the same sort of kibitzing campaign style that he used to woo the press back in 2000. ... This time there were too many cameras around and too many 25-year-old reporters and producers seizing on every odd comment to set off little blog scandals. ... McCain and his advisers realized the only way they could get TV attention was by talking about the subject that interested reporters most: Barack Obama. ... McCain and his advisers have been compelled to adjust to the hostile environment around them. They have been compelled, at least in their telling, to abandon the campaign they had hoped to run. Now they are running a much more conventional race, the kind McCain himself used to ridicule.
Boy. For a little while there, I thought there might have been some problem with Saint John's message, or the fact thatt lobbyists run his campaign, or even that his tired, Bush III policy proposals weren't attractive. But now I know it's my fault -- all of our fault! I'm just picturing John McCain physically beating what remains of American political dignity, shouting "don't make me hurt you any more!"
--Tim Fernholz
