The Sunshine Empire

When I go to the trouble of waking up at a decent hour on a Sunday I look forward to my Red Bull, and Meet The Press. When I wake this morning and find tennis in France in place of Tim Russert’s plump frame I become upset. Sure I can catch the show online when the get around to uploading it, but that’s too much time to kill until Reliable Sources and This Week. Why they cannot tape delay this garbage and put it on ESPN 2 where it belongs is beyond me. The 6 or 7 people actually interested in the French Open can wait a couple of hours. Politics is the sport of interest and not a couple of Czechs running around on a dirt field.

The panel on Reliable Sources are discussing the offer of regular town hall meetings from Senator McCain. The political commentary class are universal in that this format is McCain’s best. He’s no Bill Clinton in this format but he’s not horrible either. Yet I fail to see how this is such a slam dunk for McCain. First off, as I’ve said before the candidate that begs for more debates and joint appearances is the weaker party and is looking for a life line. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both asked for more debates and we see what happened to them. But many uncomfortable questions have come up for McCain in these town halls that the Democratic primary obsessed press have avoided covering. At one McCain was asked about a revelation that he had angrily referred to his current wife by the unholy c-word that all women loath. Now one can argue whether the question is relevant, but it doesn’t help and that kind of question does not come up in media officiated traditional debates. McCain also claimed that the U.S. military had drawn down to pre-surge levels in Iraq in a town hall meeting. Now I am a private citizen and he is the man that supposedly knows what is going on in Iraq due to his numerous visits and market strolls through Baghdad and I knew he was wrong. To be sure though, the punditry’s story about the campaign being a runaway for the Democrats is not reality and McCain has every chance to win this race, I just don’t feel town hall meetings is going to do it.

At least Face The Nation is on now.