McCain’s free ride continues while ‘terminator’ rampages

Frank Rich gets it exactly right in today’s New York Times, when he identifies the "Republican Resurrection" that has resulted from Hillary’s Terminator-like actions in the campaign. He’s especially good on the media’s"benevolence" toward John McCain.

This was strikingly apparent last week, when Mr. McCain’s calamitous
behavior was relegated to sideshow status by many, if not most, news
media. At a time of serious peril for America, the G.O.P.’s presumptive
presidential nominee revealed himself to be alarmingly out of touch on
both of the most pressing issues roiling the country.

As Bear Sterns collapsed and the nation faced its worst economic collapse in decades, McCain’s staff released an "anodyne" statement containing nothing. He promises more of the same hands-off, "business-friendly" government that helped cause the disaster.

In Iraq, Mr. McCain did not repeat his April 2007 mistake of touring a “safe” market while protected by a small army. (CNN tried to revisit that market last week, but the idea was vetoed
as too risky by the network’s security advisers.) Instead he made a
bigger mistake. As if to emulate Dick Cheney, who arrived in Baghdad a day behind him,
he embraced the vice president’s habit of manufacturing false links in
the war on terror: Mr. McCain told reporters that Iran is training Al
Qaeda operatives and sending them into Iraq.

His Sancho Panza, Joe Lieberman, whispered in his ear that a correction was in order. But this wasn’t a one-time slip, like Gerald Ford’s debate gaffe about Poland in 1976. Mr. McCain has said this repeatedly.
Troubling as it is that he conflates Shiite Iran with Sunni terrorists,
it’s even more bizarre that he doesn’t acknowledge the identity of
Iran’s actual ally in Iraq — the American-sponsored Shiite government
led by Nuri al-Maliki. Only two weeks before the Iraqi prime minister
welcomed Mr. McCain to Baghdad, he played host to a bubbly state visit by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Bottom line: McCain keeps getting a free ride, while the Clintons keep showing why Bill’s presidency was a mixed bag, helping prepare the way to the present calamity.