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Good post from Matt:
I hope [McCain] understands that a president can’t actually govern a country like this — debate on, debate off; against a takeover of AIG on Monday, for it on Tuesday; fundamentals of the economy are strong in early September, populism in mid September, wingnut tax policy in late September.The press likes the unusual. The man bite dog story. The maverick senators who does weird stuff. But just because men who bite dogs make for good copy doesn’t make biting a dog a good idea.It would also be nice if the press appeared to understand that the president can't actually govern a country like this. Fundamentally, they're the reason that an erratic politician like John McCain, who has few core policy commitments and has demonstrated little in the way of a consistent understanding of world events, is on the precipice of the presidency. It's all well and good to point out McCain's evident flaws, but he's a candidate rather than a curiosity because of a set of media incentives that will endure long after he's faded from view. Frankly, if McCain didn't exist, the press would have to have invented him. And what you're seeing over the course of this campaign is that, in large part, that's exactly what they did.
