The Hand That Feeds

Again, McCain is screwed. The media now seems quite comfortable going full-snark against McCain and the Republicans, while that had always been one of the strongest weapons in their arsenal before.

Here we have Slate's John Dickerson on last night's Republican Convention (via Carpetbagger):
"The first official night of the Republican Convention was one for contradictions. Party stalwarts gathered to celebrate both members of their ticket for bucking their party. The man who waged one of the most desultory campaigns for president in recent memory gave the most rousing speech. And the night ended with a call for loyalty from a member of the opposition party."

Ouch. And as a reminder, this is the same John Dickerson who was spoon-fed the Valarie Plame story by Ari Fleischer without realizing it and who suggested that Hillary Clinton needed to change her laugh for strategic reasons. And here he is dishing up some well-deserved snark against McCain and the Republicans. I guess snake handlers get bit too.

Yet this is all terribly predictable (as I did, in fact, predict this). For as much as Republicans want to believe they can get away with anything and still keep their coalition together, with the Palin choice they totally jumped off of the tightrope and landed right into an alligator pit. But the writing was on the wall even before this. While Bush was positioned well to be the media's buddy while his handlers kept them on a tight leash, McCain was destined to piss them off once it finally sank in that the straight-talker hadn't been so straight with them after all and that he was going to be kissing someone else's ass for the election. It's all fun and games until reality sets in.

And again, this is a disaster for McCain. Media snark is one of the strongest weapons the Republicans have as it allowed them to go personal while keeping Democrats off-balance. But it looks now like the snake has finally learned how to feed itself.