McCain-Bashing Roundup

Well, I took the day off yesterday and now apparently the constantly-attacking McCain campaign has shifted into full-on defensive damage control mode. Why? Because all of a sudden the MSM and political punditry have begun realizing a few things that the progressive blogosphere has been crowing about for months:

Item 1: McCain is filthy rich (some might in fact call him a socioeconomic "elite"), and is thus truly unable to grasp how terrible the general economic situation in the U.S. is quickly becoming.

This observation could have been made earlier, say when McCain and his economic adviser Mr. Gramm were calling the nation "a bunch of whiners" and saying that economic problems were "psychological." Even more recently, his fiscal disconnect was evident, as he reluctantlyanswered a question about his definition of "rich" at Saddleback. But it took a screw-up of colossal proportions to really make the point: McCain not being able to state how many houses he owns. That's a big third strike, and it finally got the attention of, well, EVERYONE. Add to this the recent revelations comparing McCain and Obama's tax plans, and you get a candidate who looks not only strikingly out-of-touch with the vast majority of Americans, but also completely ignorant of microeconomics.

Item 2: McCain DOES use his POW experience politically, and in fact he USES IT ALL THE TIME...FOR EVERYTHING.

Referencing his service and POW experience, despite his pledge not to do so for political gain, has become THE standard response to any Democratic attack or insinuation for McCain. Today, Howard Fineman even claimed that McCain might be rendering it trivial by repeating it so often, and Time's blog noted how non-sequitor McCain's tendency has become. This is a criticism that may be gaining steam even faster than his "housing crisis" simply because of the importance of this fact to McCain's brand. Benen, as usual, was a bit ahead on this one. The HuffPost is also all over it. It's especially notable nowadays because, according to Bush Administration standards, McCain WASN'T EVEN TORTURED during his captivity, just interrogated using enhanced techniques.

Item 3: McCain doesn't hate lobbyists like he used to, and in fact he employs over 60 of them on his campaign...that's 60 telecom lobbyists alone, not counting lobbyists for other industries.

Earlier in the race, McCain could bank on his maverick, Washington-outsider image to downplay his lobbyist connections. Unfortunately for him, it's become quite clear that he is no longer the man that fought special interests, and that he has likely become beholden to them himself.