Counting on gullible fools

Only a gullible fool would be convinced by McCain photo ops of anything, much less that the Republican attitude toward competent federal disaster assistance is anything more than a PR problem. Unfortunately for America, our citizenry has proven again and again to be heavily leavened with gullible fools. We did after all re-elect Duhbya.

Time is on board though with warmed over Republican bullshit. Oh, sure, there are some obligatory slaps at McCain, but on the key point, setting a low bar for McCain, Michael Scherer is front and center.

Scherer has no sense that this contradicts itself:

[John McCain's] campaign is determined to make the most of [Gustav] by using it to rebrand a new generation of Republicans as leaders who govern effectively and rise above partisanship.

This exercise in rebranding is itself a craven political act of desperation, about which there is nothing "above partisanship." Yet, here's the standard:

Whatever happens to the Gulf, however, there is no doubt that the McCain campaign will continue to use the aftermath as a way to demonstrate the candidate's superior leadership qualities. From the early primaries, McCain has run as a candidate best able to deal with a crisis, though the focus has mostly been on national security challenges. Now, in a circumstance at home he would never have chosen, he has a chance to deliver on that promise.

What McCain is doing for the cameras and their reporters is pure theater. It has nothing to do with leadership, superior or otherwise, and it's a mark of the corruption of our media that they think it is.