John McCain Officially In Race

Posted by Kate Butler Apr 25, 2007

Although we have all known for months (maybe even years) that John McCain is a presidential candidate for 2008, it was finally announced on Wednesday that this is indeed the case. The mainstream media will have an interesting time with McCain, as he has gone from being a major media darling in the 2000 campaign, to someone who is aligned quite closely with Bush.

McCain can be called, without much doubt, a true American hero: he was tortured during the Vietnamese war in ways that are simply unimaginable. He has gone on to be a long-serving senator from Arizona, and has championed centrist views for much of his career.

However, these impressive credentials may mean little come Republican primary voting time in early 2008. Unfortunately for McCain, his timing has been considerably off: he ran against an inexperienced son of a former President in 2000, and was loved by the media, but not by the Republican machine. McCain was seen, at this time, to be a maverick: he was saying things that political operatives of both parties thought to be anathema. As we all know, though, McCain lost the Republican primary race to George W., Dick Cheney and co., and has been trying to prove his right-wing credibility ever since.

Since the 2000 election, McCain has tried to mend fences with Bush and the Republican elite; however, this move has alienated the very media outlets that valorized him in the first place. By going back on his previous opinions on gay marriage, abortion and other controversial issues, McCain has been shown by the media to be far more politically inclined than they would have liked. While other politicians backtrack all the time, the media has seemed to take particular offense to McCain’s miscues, likely because his candidacy was unlike one that most journalists had seen before.

Whether McCain wins or loses in 2008 (in either the general election or the primaries) will, for better or for worse, depend greatly on the media. He would do well to court their favors at this time and in the near future. Whether he chooses to continue playing the maverick, or if he finds some other guise to use, his fate is intrinsically linked to mainstream media coverage of him as a person and a candidate.