Ana Marie Cox nicely illustrates one of the problems afflicting reporters who cover John McCain. First, she contrasts the "generalists" who cover the campaign and know politics to the occasional interlopers with real expertise on a particular policy. Fair enough, but the example of McCain's cap and trade environmental plan is frightening. This policy isn't complicated; Cox needs someone to translate it for her?
More to the point, however, is her conclusion: "[McCain] knows, I think, carbon reduction will cost something, to someone, but he has to make that seem as much like a function of markets as possible." First, she excuses McCain's ignorance--surely, he knows what he's talking about, so we'll just pay no attention to what he actually said. Second, she excuses what can only be called a lie from Mr. Straight Talk--if he does know what he's talking about, then he's lying about the cost and impact of his program. But, hey, that's okay, Cox's tone says. We (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) know how the game is played.
Hilzoy has recently taken reporters to task for these assumptions. She carefully lists a long series of instances, from cap and trade, to the number of troops in Iraq, to the differences between Shia and Sunni to Social Security policy to the economy in general, in which McCain has revealed a lamentable ignorance of the key facts, of his policy proposals, or both. In each instance, reporters tend to excuse McCain--well, he's having a bad day or he generally knows what he's talking about or he's just playing the game or whatever.
Look, perhaps the worst mistake made by the media in 2000 was the assumption that George W. Bush knew his stuff--he just couldn't express himself clearly or he was just playing some politics. Reporters seemed to believe in their own divine powers of discernment; at some level inaccessible to those who merely listened to Bush, media bigfoots could detect a shrewd intelligence. Guess what? There was no there there. He didn't know anything and he would believe what he wanted to believe regardless of the facts.
Now John McCain comes along and Cox perfectly illustrates the same process. Equally important, the evidence is piling up, as Hilzoy notes. McCain makes mistakes and doesn't know the facts on a nearly day by day basis. We simply cannot--cannot--make the same mistake again.
Comments