Trapped in a maze of twisty passages, all different

Being a maverick means never having to say you're sorry.

What McCain has had all these years is certitude in everything he says, no matter how often he completely contradicted himself - in five minutes, five days, or five years.

This story enumerates McCain's nonsensical mix of positions. In one way, he is heir to Reagan, who promised lower taxes, a balanced budget, and a large increase in military spending all at once. McCain similarly can't count.

You might say McCain's positions bespeak a lack of any core convictions. I just call his platform bullshit.

Pretty good timetable, uh, horizon

McCain's "straight" talk is predicated on your inability to form new memories. Thursday, leaving Iraq over 16 months was choosing to lose (h/t Joe Klein, credit where due). Yesterday, 16 months sounds like a pretty good date, uh, timetable, uh, horizon, uh, thingumabob. Tomorrow, who the hell knows? McCain shows no sign of knowing what his message is.

What the press likes about McCain: He improvises all the time. Problem for the rest of us is that he doesn't do it well.

Update: Atrios nails it.

McCNN - Fox with a human face

In the be careful what I ask for department, CNN is back to amateur colonoscopy of John McCain. The headlines today:

• "McCain courts women voters" - How? He went on "The View"! By the way, did you know that women are an important voting bloc?
• "Poll: McCain even with Obama, Clinton" - The actual results are a regression from recent McCain leads, but CNN helpfully compares them to a poll from February instead of something more recent.
• "McCain outlines plan for economy", teased by the even more brown-nosing tag "McCain offers plan to help homeowners" - The New York Times lets Alzheimer's Americans in on the fact that McCain is flip-flopping from his previous ardent ideological do-nothing approach. B-bu-but it has an acronym vaguely reminiscent of the Great Lakes, so it must be da bomb.
  
• "McCain fundraises off upcoming attacks" - Ooh, the bogeyman George Soros makes wingnuts wet their pants and send money to McCain. Or he might at some undefined time in the future.
• "Bloomberg: McCain got me elected" - What's next, Bloomberg, his own VP? Seriously, who gives a rat's ass about Michael Bloomberg?

Really, CNN must like the taste of McCain's backside to kiss it so thoroughly.

NYTimes off the reservation

The New York Times treads right up to the line and, though it doesn't quite say openly that Rudy Giuliani is a compulsive liar, cheat, and bullshitter, nowadays, that's close enough for plaudits.

Here's the clearest of many illustrations:

In a recent radio advertisement by the campaign about his health care proposal, Mr. Giuliani repeated another false statement that he had been using on the campaign trail.

Frank Luntz's take on the Republican attitude toward bullshit is also instructive:

“When he talks about New York, people see it,” Mr. Luntz said of Mr. Giuliani, “and they feel it, and if a number isn’t quite right, or is off by a small amount, nobody will care, because it rings true to them.”

Whether something's true or not doesn't matter. Only fooling the people with their feelings matters.

There's also some compulsive reportorial "balance". Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama get dinged. (I bet John Edwards wishes he were in the story, too, even to get corrected!)

Obama exaggerated the degree of increase in the public debt. He said "doubled". The Times should have served its readers better by noting the facts: From Jan. 20, 2001 to today, the national debt has increased from $5.7 trillion to $9.1 trillion, an increase of a mere 60%.

No time at the moment to check Hillary's NIH statement.

Update: Hard to be sure what Hillary said or meant to say without context, but it is true that NIH funding has increased in every area under Duhbya.