No presidential nominee in modern U.S. political history has reinvented himself more than John McCain.

—Steve Benen

And who is to blame for the American public not knowing this?

Brokaw is either stupid or a hack. Probably both.

Obama is Michael Jackson's less deranged twin, seperated at birth due to very mysterious events not yet made public. I just read about it in an e-mail from my mother's second cousin in Idaho. I'm passing it on to everyone I know. You'll be reading about it in a few days. Really, it's true. I read it in an e-mail. Has to be true. Pretty disturbing stuff.

And who is to blame for the American public not knowing this? -Econobuzz

The American public.

John McCain didn't have the luxury of flip-flopping for 5 1/2 years, IN PRISON.

What has discouraged me the most about this election season is seeing liberal after liberal first forgetting and then rediscovering the power that comes with controlling the media.

Why would any Democrat be surprised about this? We are in the age of propaganda. Of course Republicans are going about this election season just as they have for the last couple of decades!

I'm not shocked, just not shocked at all that they've managed to insert falsehood after falsehood into the body politic. I'm not flabbergasted that they've managed to make lies into conventional wisdom.

Until we learn to compete on the playing field of emotion and perception then we are going to continue to lose the Presidency. We're on the precipice right now of seeing Obama go down in flames. We've got one hope left, and that hope is to fight fire with fire and define McCain as an old-age addled, out-of-touch, hotheaded fool. Otherwise, it will just be too easy for the same people who voted for Bush to come out and vote McCain.

Yup, and if Grampy McCain takes the White House, how the Republicans will guffaw!! Like taking candy from a baby!! As the New York Times did, years after the fact and when it was much too late to do any good, perhaps the pundits like Brokaw will one day apologize for misleading the public - either willfully or through laziness and ignorance.

Still, one gets the leaders one deserves, and if the electorate is lazy and stupid, it has none to blame but itself for the regime under which it must live. Politicians like McCain count on laziness and stupidity to advance their aims, and in the United States, they are seldom disappointed.

Brokaw thinks "Authentic" is an aftershave lotion because his brain is shriveled up. Overexposure to blowdryer EMF sometimes has that effect.

Quite right -- Swiftboat the Cunt, I mean the McC*nt.

Seriously, what else? We can even use facts, god forbid, I mean G*d.

No presidential nominee in modern U.S. political history has reinvented himself more than John McCain.

Sounds like a good theme for Obama's convention speech, no?

Prior to Russert's death, wasn't Brokaw "retired" and just working on "special projects"? If so, it's possible he wasn't paying particularly close attention to the primaries. Of course, the fact that no other media sources were talking about it either pretty much speaks for itself.

there was a time i held this sort of thing against The Media, and cursed their negative influence on American democracy.

but to one degree or another, the press has come to fear, love or been bought by the Right beginning as far back as the downward spiral Carter experienced, and in earnest since the 1994 Contract On America. it has been in full force in Presidential elections since 2000, when The Media turned Gore into something antithetical to the real Al Gore.

after that much time and warning, if the Democrats and other progressives have not figured out a way to go over, under or around The Media to effectively get their message out, have not figured out how to counter the Republican games that created this Media, have not come up with contingencies for messaging or messaging so compelling it cannot be ignored or distorted, and have not developed their own left-leaning infrastructure to rival Fox, the VRWC, and the Think Tanks it is no longer sensible to blame The Media.

We have seen the enemy and it is us.

We've had at a bare minimum 8 years (and arguably 28 years) to figure this out. That we haven't speaks poorly of the party and its messengers. We need to do a much better job of looking to see how the Right did it, because it has worked very very well.

McCain changes positions more frequently than two dozen ADHD patients participating in an orgy.

WHAT RACE IS BROKAW WATCHING?

—Steve Benen

WHAT RACE IS OBAMA RUNNING?

Brokaw lives in Cokie-land now. He doesn't really follow events closely enough to say anything interesting, so he just regurgitates stuff he heard over mint juleps at the 19th Hole.

Brokaw's a scoundrel. You can be a friend to McCain, and keep your honesty but you can't do it by lying. I don't even know that Brokaw and McCain are friends. It could simply be profitable to lie.

I don't think Tom Brokaw is the sort of willful or careless hack we often complain about, but more a sort of sentimental fellow who just doesn't get "hard" enough about "lovable" individuals to shrewdly dissect their foibles. Well, since I basically want to like Tom, I hope so.

Nothing new this year for McCain. Over his entire career, McCain has shown a pattern of voting more with his party as election time nears and less with his party in off election years. Political expediency exactly. Less a maverick when the votes really count -- for reelection.

Somehow Brokaw in Broderspeak wants to place McCain in the greatest generation but McCain really doesn't quite make the grade. They think McCain can bridge the partisan divide but he'll have a hell of time doing it after burning the bridges in this election. But once the meme is set in these old dudes' minds it is a hard one for them to break and to think anew.

You are completely missing the point -- McCain has never changed his CORE! He is an ex-POW and a warrior, and that will never change.

On those other issues -- McCain can't really change his mind, because he's never actually given them any thought.

zeitgeist,

I think liberals and progressives have fought that to some extent with the internet, which is why so many on the right are fighting against net neutrality.

And maybe MSNBC is starting to get it that they can't out FOX the competition.

It's like the difference between Target and K Mart. When faced with the oncoming giant that is Wal Mart, K Mart chose to try to out cheap them, and Target decided to out class them.

Target is still Target. K Mart damaged their brand so badly, they had to buy Sears and assume their name to survive.

Hopefully MSNBC is ready to commit to out classing FOX.

Also, one of the things that most disappointed me about President Clinton was his support for the 1996 Telecom bill that tore down so many media ownership barriers. I think that only accelerated the degradation of the nation media.

Sorry but Brokaw is dumber than the average voter. He is one who memorizes and recites from scripts but recall on FISA he thought it more important to sit home all afternoon so he wouldn't mis NASCAR on TV rather than follow the happenings in Congress.

Even his questions are without informed substance and I'm not sure he even understands the issues much less the candidate's stands on them. He really is amazingly ignorant. Pretty boy...pretty face...pretty voice...pretty dumb. "Sounding" authoritative and informed is different than actually being that way. He started believing his own hype but really just isn't all that bright.

perhaps, doubtful, you are right that there are hopeful signs on the horizon (Maddow getting her own show is surely one!) it just seems to have moved so slowly, so erratically (Air America, anyone?) and much less effectively than what the Right pulled off. and i attribute much of that to (a) more general disorganization on the left, a group who abhors structure and discipline and (b) a general antipathy toward emotional or low-brow tactics despite repeated proof that the public at large eats them up (getting back to your ascribing the responsibility to the public up at 3:33)

as for the Telecom Act of 1996, it is largely a mixed bag. yes, it allowed massive and negative media consolidation. it also made the explosion of a largely unregulated Internet much more possible - something that has, as you note, helped our side a great deal (ditto VoIP and wireless - we tend to use new technologies better). without the 96 Act, the old Bell companies would have all along controlled the entire internet; net neutrality would have been gone long ago.

McCain is mentally scarred by the way the GOP turned on him in 2000, albeit due to shockingly obscene Rove tactics. He won't suffer that shame again.

To grasp the self-referential nature of McCain's campaign, in which every answer adds up to "I'm right because I'm right", just look at the ad on Political Animal's front page.

The ad, from McCain, has the headline "Is it OK to Unconditionally Meet With Anti-American Foreign Leaders?". If you click NO, it takes you to a McCain gimme-money page. If you click YES, it takes you to the same page.

Like everything else about his campaign, this lets McCain change his stance repeatedly without ever having to change his ad. Saves money on creative talent and minimizes trail.

minimizes paper trail. Sorry, somebody stole the paper.

But Steve, you can't have it both ways. Either McCain is pandering to the right, and so, (nudge nudge, wink wink) is really still the guy they loved in 2000, or else he really is a right wing jerk who was only pretending to be a moderate. The media wants to believe the former, McCain's record argues for the latter.

McCain won by simply being "the most authentic ... he wasn't trying to reinvent himself."

I don't see what's wrong with this statement. McPOW has always been a grasping, obnoxious whore willing to do anything, anywhere with anyone for cash and votes.

ReThugs eat that stuff up.

A couple of hours ago I was listening to Brian Williams interviewing Douglas Brinkley, a noted historian. Williams was talking about Adlai Stevenson and mentioned that he died on "a street in Paris" while walking with a friend. Brinkley never corrected him - and I can't believe he didn't know - that Stevenson died in London. If I, an amateur historian knew that, what other false facts go uncorrected on TV?

Steve,

I have to disagree with you a little bit.

I think what we are seeing here is the real McCain. He changed his positions in 2000 to appeal to his base (the press). When that didn't get him elected, he changed his positions back.

When someone like Browkaw talks about 'will' he doesn't mean anything as mundane as actual positions on actual issues. He means 'will to power'-- so that, e.g., if becoming President requires that McCain change every political position he has ever had, then-- well, so be it.

But bluewave, you don't get the problem. If McCain is pandering, then he *isn't* still the same lovable guy even if "what he really believes in" hasn't changed. I mean, the pandering is bad in itself, and then he has to either
1. Do what the pandering implies, which shows he's a phony and has the destructive effects that follow.
2. Trick his new pander-ees and really be moderate after all, which would be better for the USA but make him dishonest about keeping promises.
In any case, his recent voting record really does show the practical embodiment of pandering to the right, not just talking that way.

Fine post Mr. Benen.

I'd love to see Mr. Brokaw's response.
You've rapped on his door...
Rather loudly.

Where is he?
Hiding under the bed?
Or putting on his makeup and skimming the producer's notes?

Brokaw is openly Republican in his analysis of this campaign. Of course he likes McCain and overlooks his flip flops. I believe the only reason that McCain won the Republican nomincation is because the rest of the candidates were so horrible that voters really had only one choice. He is a pathetic campaigner and obviously not very intelligent or stable emotionally. God help us if the American people are so racially prejudiced that they vote for McCain. When Hillary and Bill kept saying during the primaries that Obama could not win the election, what they really meant was that Americans are too racially prejudiced to vote for a black candidate. This, I believe, accounts for the fact that Obama is not running away with this election. I think it is really a miracle that he is ahead at all. If he were a white man, he would be 15 points ahead. Wonder why the talking heads haven't figured out why this race is so close?

Brokaw is openly Republican in his analysis of this campaign. Of course he likes McCain and overlooks his flip flops. I believe the only reason that McCain won the Republican nomincation is because the rest of the candidates were so horrible that voters really had only one choice. He is a pathetic campaigner and obviously not very intelligent or stable emotionally. God help us if the American people are so racially prejudiced that they vote for McCain. When Hillary and Bill kept saying during the primaries that Obama could not win the election, what they really meant was that Americans are too racially prejudiced to vote for a black candidate. This, I believe, accounts for the fact that Obama is not running away with this election. I think it is really a miracle that he is ahead at all. If he were a white man, he would be 15 points ahead. Wonder why the talking heads haven't figured out why this race is so close?

btw...Clinton supported the Telecom bill because the press loved him then and he never thought they'd turn on him like they did but that is what happens with a corporate owned and operated media. Google "Operation Mockingbird" to see the real agenda behind corporate owned media.

Brokaw is openly Republican in his analysis of this campaign. Of course he likes McCain and overlooks his flip flops. I believe the only reason that McCain won the Republican nomincation is because the rest of the candidates were so horrible that voters really had only one choice. He is a pathetic campaigner and obviously not very intelligent or stable emotionally. God help us if the American people are so racially prejudiced that they vote for McCain. When Hillary and Bill kept saying during the primaries that Obama could not win the election, what they really meant was that Americans are too racially prejudiced to vote for a black candidate. This, I believe, accounts for the fact that Obama is not running away with this election. I think it is really a miracle that he is ahead at all. If he were a white man, he would be 15 points ahead. Wonder why the talking heads haven't figured out why this race is so close?

Brokaw is openly Republican in his analysis of this campaign. Of course he likes McCain and overlooks his flip flops. I believe the only reason that McCain won the Republican nomincation is because the rest of the candidates were so horrible that voters really had only one choice. He is a pathetic campaigner and obviously not very intelligent or stable emotionally. God help us if the American people are so racially prejudiced that they vote for McCain. When Hillary and Bill kept saying during the primaries that Obama could not win the election, what they really meant was that Americans are too racially prejudiced to vote for a black candidate. This, I believe, accounts for the fact that Obama is not running away with this election. I think it is really a miracle that he is ahead at all. If he were a white man, he would be 15 points ahead. Wonder why the talking heads haven't figured out why this race is so close?

also re the Telecom Act, remember that at the time the economy was rewarding and encouraging start-up CLECs and dot-coms and many of the small entreprenurial entities were very Democratic-leaning. they were Clinton's allies. but to get that bill breaking up the local Bell monopolies through Congress was never going to be easy and was always going to take a lot of compromise - many, almost by definition, of a hold-your-nose variety. Clinton was never going to have a clean bill to sign. on the telecom side, it was written to try and favor the new entrants. in trade, on the broadcast side it was written to favor the old media. and a lot of these trades were made on behalf of Democrats (not unlike Dingell's ability to gut enviro legislation) with parochial interests in a particular communications company.

i find it hard to understand how people can (a) treat the 96 Act like an unambiguous "bad" when it had literally hundreds of provisions and (b) treat the bad parts like they were all Clinton's fault given the fact that it was one of the most extensively lobbied and horse-traded bills in history.

Brokaw is not fooled. Only a fool could be fooled, and even a fool has friends who would tell them how foolish they've been.

With that said, there is no question Traditional Media (which is a business and should be expected to conduct itself as a business would) has an agenda not in line with that of the American people.

Quid Pro Quo?

I question whether the failing industry has found a way to subsidize its bottom line.

Steve - Why do you persist in the belief that the corporate media is anything other than a part of and a tool of corporate amerika. Corporate amerika placed their bets on Hillary early. Now their bets are placed on McCrap.

As a DittoHead told me last week "Obama is a socialist and we know we can control McCain." I am sure he formed that opinion from Rush & Hannity & the local (Indianapolis) republican hate talk radio hosts.

Brokaw is NOT being fooled or conned. He is part of the con job.

The ONLY reason that this election will be close is because the rethugs and their corporate media echo chamber are working overtime on their voting bases.

One main base is the Religious Right. The television preachers are repugnicans forever. Morality has nothing to do with that. McSame could have the notorious homosexual Charlie Crist as his v.p. pick and the RR leadership will buy it and sell it to their flocks. Remember, Obama is the AntiChrist - or at least CNN will tell you that it is a legitimate topic for discussion.

The second main base is the Low Information Voter. There is a lot of overlap from the RR flocks. Low Information Voter is rethug and corporate media code for Stupid White Trash. Stupid White Trash present little trouble in being convinced to vote against their economic self-interests. Fear and hate work extremely well with this group. The rethugs and the corporate media give this group mostly confusing and conflicting information on issues and candidate's policies. And then the repugnicans and the corporate media provide lots of 'character' information (some of it even true) to play upon the emotions, fears, and hates of the Stupid White Trash.

I continue to be sad for my country.

"Of course, if McCain has Brokaw fooled, and Brokaw is a veteran journalist and the host of "Meet the Press," imagine how easy it is for McCain to con the typical American voter who doesn't have time to pay attention to the ins and outs of politics."

and this is especially true because people like brokaw further mccain's con AND continually "remind" the viewers that americans "don't know what democrats stand for."

so in poll after poll the majority of americans support democratic positions on the majority of issues and they don't know that those ARE democratic positions?

and who's fault is that?

oh, duh, that's right, the democrats and the public.

Flip-flop #75 is his Roe v. Wade reversal which is different than his other reversal on abortion in regards to women's health.

This should be added in view of theDebra Bartoshevich flap where a former Clinton delegate thought he still held a view he expressed in 1999.

"It's hard to believe someone of Brokaw's stature could say something so spectacularly dumb, in public, without any idea of how wrong he is."

Well, I began noticing the decline in network news when Brokaw and Russert took over, and were treated as if they were news analysts in the mode of an Edward R. Murrow.