Newsweek sat down with John McCain on Friday morning, just two-and-a-half days after delivering his widely-panned “lime Jell-O” speech near New Orleans, and asked him about some of his media criticism.
Newsweek: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans was that you felt that the media hadn’t recognized or had overlooked some of the attributes that Hillary Clinton had brought to the race. And I wondered–
McCain: I did not [say that] — that was in prepared remarks, and I did not [say it] — I’m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage … My supporters and friends can comment all they want about the press coverage, and that’s their right. They’re American citizens. I will not because I believe it’s not a profitable enterprise for me to do so. I can’t change any of the coverage that I know of except to just campaign as hard as I can and try to seek the approval of the majority of my fellow citizens.
It is something that the American people will judge, and I won’t complain about it and I won’t praise it. I will just run my campaign and hope that the American people will make a judgment.
That’s a rather emphatic denial, isn’t it? McCain sounds like he’s actually given this some thought. He knew it was in his prepared remarks, but McCain also insisted that he deliberately omitted that part of his written speech because he wants no part of media criticism right now.
Funny story: McCain did say what Newsweek claimed he said, and McCain apparently didn’t remember his own speech, just a couple of days after delivering it.
It’s right there in the video, less than a minute into the speech: “The media often overlooked how compassionately [Hillary Clinton] spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.”
John Cole concluded, “He is either lying, or he does not remember what he said.” My money’s on the latter. It seems unlikely McCain would blatantly lie about a much-scrutinized speech that we all watched. It’s more likely McCain wasn’t paying attention to the words on the teleprompter, was just going through the motions, and quickly forgot what he’d just told a national television audience.
It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the guy, but that’s probably what happened.
As long as we’re on the subject, there was also this interesting exchange in the same interview:
Newsweek: There was a report raising questions about statements you made in the past about the wiretapping program and what your advisers say [today]. Have you changed your thinking on wiretapping?
McCain: Of course not. My position has been exactly the same. I have always said the president should obey the law. I still believe the president should obey the law.
This just isn’t true. McCain’s position not only changed, he reversed course completely.
McCain has always played fast and loose like this with details and facts, and he could get away with it in 2007 when his “major” competitors were underwhelming Republicans like Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee. But it’s general election time — and the fact that McCain can’t (or won’t) pick up his game should make Republicans nervous.