OpEdNews » McCain, Obama, the Press, and "The One"

With a new television spot comparing Barack Obama to bubble-gum celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, John McCain is launching a new campaign aimed at portraying Obama as simply an international star. This has raised the issue about McCain’s self image and state of mind.

Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist, said McCain sometimes appears frustrated and angry when he talks about Obama, especially when complaining that the press does not treat him fairly. "John needs to be the deliberate, experienced veteran and not the grumpy old man," Rollins said. "If he's the grumpy old man, angry that the media is not in love with him anymore because they're in love with Barack Obama, that's not going to play well with the public.”

McCain’s obsession over Obama’s popularity has reached such epic proportions that privately the McCain campaign privately calls Mr. Obama “The One”. The Republican National committee campaign maintains an “Audacity Watch” that chronicles Mr. Obama’s most showy claims. And observers on the right often refer to the Democratic candidate as “Saint Obama”.

Neo: “What is happening to me?”

Morpheus: “You are the One, Neo.” "The Matrix"

But many Republicans, including John Weaver, Mr. McCain’s former campaign manager who described yesterday’s advertisement as “childish”, worry that Mr. McCain is jeopardizing his reputation for being a civil campaigner without putting forward a coherent message about what he would do as president.

For weeks, McCain's staff has been criticized for running a campaign that has no clear message. The decision by the senator from Arizona to have former Bush strategist Steve Schmidt (former subordinate of Karl Rove) run daily operations was described as a way to get control of the message. But some Republicans outside the campaign believe that not much has changed since then.

At a town hall meeting Tuesday, a GOP voter posed a question McCain has heard everywhere from Sparks, Nevada, to Dayton, Ohio: Why should Republicans support him?

"I think I speak for a lot of conservatives when I say I'm not very excited about this election," the questioner said, noting that he differs with McCain on issues including "amnesty" for illegal immigrants and the senator's support for "the global warming crowd's agenda."

But rather than rattle off his most conservative positions—his opposition to abortion and support for the war—McCain launched into a long explanation of his role in a compromise on judges, something that conservatives often criticize him for.

This became more serious when the previous McCain advertisement last weekend, which wrongly claimed Mr. Obama cancelled a visit to see wounded troops in Germany because the Pentagon would not permit the media to accompany him has since, been discredited.

Morpheus: “You are the One, Neo.” "The Matrix"

But no, Obama is just a politician. So is John McCain. But one talks more like the “One” than the other one.

Did you hear that John McCain all but called Barack Obama a socialist in an interview recently, right about the same time he was quoted as essentially calling him a traitor?

Probably not. As supporters of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee have been reminding us, Obama, his likely Democratic opponent, has been getting far more media coverage—a 2-1 advantage in network airtime, for example, according to one study.

This statistical imbalance has prompted a tsunami of umbrage from the right. It's not fair, they say. It's not balanced. It proves that journalists are so infatuated with Obama that they've lost their collective objectivity.

Secretly, they must be thrilled.

First, it gives them a chance to bash the media.

And second, "coverage”, nearly 18 months into a campaign when reporters are desperate for new angles, is often uncomfortably close to pitiless scrutiny.

For Example: Is John McCain losing it? Is Sen. John McCain giving fits to conservatives, like those who comprise The Wall Street Journal's editorial board: that they're asking aloud if he's stupid?

Daniel Henninger, The WSJ’s columnist points to a few recent examples that alarmed the conservative camp—all were said by McCain himself: things that were contradictory, that seemed illogical, or not helpful to his parties chances.

Travel website: The Pink Agenda. Several Blogs. Weekly newsletter, available upon request. Publications - Fiction: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003. Poetry: The Refined Savage Poetry Review - Refined Savage Editions; Unfinished Works - AIDS Services Foundation – Orange County December 2005; Fingernails Across the Chalkboard Gwendolyn Brooks Center December 2006 Non-Fiction: "Queer History viewed through the eyes of Literature and my favorite books as I live my Latino Odyssey" Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. May, 2006. Unfinished Works Published by AIDS Services Foundation "HIV From the Puerto Rican Perspective"– Orange County December 2005. Watch for his forthcoming book - "Mosaic Virus"