Straight Talk Express falls silent
LAFAYETTE HILL, PA — John McCain is showing unprecedented message discipline aboard his campaign plane of late. Silence.
And while the real life McCain has not been back to speak to the press aboard his jet for more than a month, a life-size cardboard cutout of the candidate now rides in the back section of the plane. Both McCains are not taking any questions from the media today.
The cutout, placed there by members of his traveling press corps this morning, is symbolic of the new reality of covering a candidate made famous for once spending hours daily fielding questions.
While the campaign jet includes a customized “straight talk” section outfitted with professional audio and lighting, it has only been used once since the plane launched June 30 when McCain spoke to reporters during a flight to Colombia on July 1.
There was a time when McCain would actually tire out the press corps leading television cameramen to complain to producers that it was time to end an availability as the back and forth often went for longer then an hour. One memorable availability in February lasted nearly 90 minutes during a flight from Kansas to Washington state. During the primary, McCain would sometimes talk to reporters aboard his bus for four or five hours in one day.
Replacing the once daily press conferences and regular sessions aboard his bus and plane are now weekly or twice-weekly pooled availabilities the campaign calls “audibles” in which McCain will take a handful of questions from a smaller group of journalists while he is surrounded by voters at campaign stops.
Additionally, McCain is now spending the majority of his time speaking with local journalists who are known to ask softer questions and less prone to grill the candidate. While this is usually the reality covering the Obama campaign, McCain advisers have always touted the unprecedented access they provided to the media embodied in the “straight talk” motto.
Last week, the first opportunity the national media had to question the candidate was at a late afternoon press conference on Friday, arguably the least access the press has had to McCain since the campaign began.
But it is possible the new message discipline worked for the presumptive GOP nominee last week as he controlled most of the news cycle last week and had his opponent on the defensive. The media was forced to cover McCain’s prepared remarks at town hall meetings and campaign statements and ads stood without the candidate taking any questions and potentially contradicting his campaign or making news on another subject.
Howard Kurtz also captures the campaign’s new media strategy in a Washington Post story this morning…
Tags: john mccain, media access
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What’s the point?
McCain’s positions are well-covered. This report amounts to little more than journalistic whining.
I guess he figures the national news would rather go to Europe with Obama than talk to him so why bother. The local press might give him more time to express his views.
By all accounts - McCAIN has been light-years more accessable than the ARROGANT NObama.
Alas, No - the world does NOT revolve around the press (despite what they say / believe)
McCAIN for President ‘08 !!!
Look’s like McSame only want to joke around and have fun. No time for serious probing questions, only have time to mock Obama……..that’s the ticket….strainght talking BS.
Actually here’s coverage of McCain’s press conference on Friday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1AjO-IxfMY
McCain voted against it 3 times!
The election has turn into referendum on Obama. Obama has already won the election, based on the issues. But as McCain has started his attack machine, there are some voters who respond to this lower level of politicing. I would hope we Americans could steer away from such childish behavior.
If McCain wins the election, it will not be because people actually think he is the right person for the job.
we do not need a guy who graduated in the bottom 5 of his promotion as president.
No wonder he doesn’t understand that Obama’s energy plan is NOT about tires…
My Friend McCain, thats the best choice you have done so far, to keep your mouth shut…
At least this way no one will know you are Bush clone and have no solutions to anything, other then surge, surge and surge…
Or maybe he is writing his new book, professional flip flopping 101, or the ways of stealing others plans and make them your own..
RON PAUL !!!!!!! we need you
What’s the point? The point is the McCain campaign leadres want to control what McCain say’s. Thats the point. He has no control over new campaign leaders, they have worked on how to help McCAin with the use of negative attacks on Obama. They know that Obama has a big chance on winnig this election and they are running scared. They said Obama has “celebrity personality” that is the way they get to make him look bad, because they know (proven) that Obama is liked by many. He looks presidental and confident, they call this arrogant, how should he look i f he is running for president? They are afraid, they did not expect that the American people are ready for something new, a leader that is not the same. The people of America want change, and this change is going to be to vote for a man that has proven that he can do the job, OBama 2008.
I guess Camp McCain got tired of the daily gaffes. But, the gaffes never really seemed to do any damage to McCain anyway.
I see McCain has finally wised up and decided to play the game the way Obama has since the beginning only giving interviews to people who won’t ask the tough questions. I would have rather seen him press Obama into some unscripted debates, so the entire country could watch Obama stutter through the tough questions. We all know unless it is a scripted speach Obama really has no answers.
The cut out reflects his message. Flat and one dimensional.
Senator McCain probably got tired of the drive-by media hacking up his 90 minute press sessions into 10 second “gotcha” sound bites.
Improve on journalistic integrity and maybe you will be rewarded with improved access to Senator McCain.
i am sure his advisors are afraid for him to speak. he is an idiot and talks out of both sides of his mouth. he is so out there that one never knows what will come from his mouth. he can not stay on message and if it were not for obsessing about obama and what obama is talking about the old man would be clueless as to what is going on around him.
god help us if this old coot gets inside the whitehouse!
Poor MSM. They ignored McCain for months and now they are crying about a couple of days. Turn about is fair play if you ask me.
Funny, versions of this article are on every MSM site, but when Obama brought the majority of the national press around the world with him on his fact-fudging mission and fed them nothing but what amounted to be “fake interviews” and photo ops, no one complained.
In this entire campaign, how many questions has Obama answered? The few times that anyone has asked him anything that can be answered with “Change”, “Hope” or “McCain/ Bush policies”; he gasps for air like a fish out of water and we end up with weeks of him whining about being a victim and barely cloaked racist allegations.
What ever happened to investigative reporting or reporting facts? Here’s an idea- WHY was McCain not taking questions for a few days. Seems like a simple enough question to ask and get an answer to. But that wouldn’t make for an paper selling headline, would it?
Do members of the press ever feel used? Let’s face it, McCain just isn’t about “straight talk” anymore. “The emperor has no clothes,” and now we can all start to see old John for who he really is.
That’s because he is now a puppet, a managed good and not allowed to think for himself. His opinions are timed responses and marketing drivel.
you ran out of attack ads ??
omg a beautiful day in America
When they said McCain does not speak for the campaign, we now know that they were right.
Comment by Randy H
August 4th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
That’s because he is now a puppet, a managed good and not allowed to think for himself. His opinions are timed responses and marketing drivel.
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hey this is not an Obama blog its a McCain one….and i dont think BO will like you calling him a Puppet…………….. :p………
only comment is for all to go to http://www.factcheck.org and check out the latest.
Forget about the media, do your own research. You’ll find some interesting things (the truth’s) about McCain’s latest ads, Obama’s ad’s, and a couple of 527′ ads.
They give you sources (real sources or lack thereof) and an opportunity for the campaigns to explain where they got their ino.
Interesting.
McCain message is convoluted, he’s all over the place so it’s wise for his advisors to shut him up for a bit. He’s message is also confusing as it lacks details only prompting more questions the advisors rather not have to answer. McCain has officially become the Republican puppet and is being trained on better speech making and groomed on how not to stick your foot in your mouth. He’ll let the BS ads speak for him though, how sad.
Dave said, “What’s the point? The point is the McCain campaign leadres want to control what McCain say’s.”
No, the point is Mr. Oinounou, through his report, clearly indicates his liberal distain for Sen. McCain. I;m not surprised the liberal media has this opinion of the Republican candidate.
I say again, Mr. Oinounou and the rest of his colleagues need to stop whining and just do their jobs. So far, I’m unimpressed by the professionalism, or lack thereof.
hey McCain, what you did your celeb add, why did you not use the Gov. off California to too ??
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Who was the President whom people said were:
scary
risky
inexperienced
an empty suit
gave great speeches but no substance
was a celebrity
RONALD REAGAN
Republicans= Hypocrites
Fox, remember McCain dont work on the weekends
Talking about press access to McCain, is it true that he had a black reporter removed from a press conference in Florida ?
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