As predicted here yesterday, it does seem that yesterday's New York Times story on John McCain has had the effect of rallying the recalcitrant conservatives of the Republican Party around him.
. . . the reaction may have said as much about the mindset of the conservative movement on the brink of the general election as it did about McCain and his team.
“Even if they want to quibble within our own tribe, they’ll circle the wagons when we’re attacked by the Times,” said McCain campaign senior adviser Charlie Black.
That's from The Politico, which also says "Rush, Right, Rally to McCain."
At least one commentator on the Democratic side, Jay Rosen, is critical of the New York Times for the article, wondering why the Times would endorse McCain, as it did in January, while working on this very story, which it deemed serious enough to put on page one. Rosen observes that, despite the separation between the news and editorial sides of the paper, the publisher, Arthur Sulzburger, Jr., was aware of what was happening on each side.
A commenter to our post on this subject, Dragonfly Eye, whose blog is on our recommended list, and the intellectual integrity of whose own writings we admire, has suggested that there may yet be more to come out on McCain.
And undoubtedly there will be some negative fallout for McCain as a result of the Times story alone. But to the extent that the story worked to rally conservatives around the presumptive Republican candidate, it provided substantial help for him. Help of a magnitude, perhaps, that could not have been provided, or provided more effectively, from any source other than The New York Times.
1 comment:
Are you a McCain supporter? I can't remember.
Also a comment: I like your posts about state and national politics. But you've really gone off the rails with the local stuff recently -- not because I disagree (though I do) but because I think the tone is too shrill for you. The piece about nuns was, in my opinion, beneath you.
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