The LA Times Maeve Reston, laments at how her Viagra question forced The Honorable Maverick(TM) to turn on his base.
Reston admits that the Love affair has ended:
Although the relationship was mutually beneficial, McCain offered accessibility and openness that was rare, if not unprecedented, in modern presidential politics. Now, as the presidential campaign plunges into its final days, that intimacy -- real or imagined -- has evaporated.
And her question was the excuse:
It wasn't my intention, but I played a role in shutting down John McCain's Straight Talk Express.
Viagra ended the love affair:
The questions meandered across more than a dozen topics, but I asked if he agreed with his advisor Carly Fiorina's recent statement that it was unfair for some health insurance companies to cover Viagra but not birth control -- because McCain generally opposed those kinds of mandates.
And let me tell you ohh was it a love affair:
By July, I had covered McCain for almost seven months. I could recite many lines of his stump speech by heart, dreamed about his events at night and spent so much time scrolling through campaign e-mails on my BlackBerry that my fiance joked to our friends about the other man in my life.
There is even this juicy tidbit about the rules of the McCain press orgy:
Over those months, McCain had artfully created a sense of intimacy with the reporters who traveled with him. He barbecued for us at his Arizona cabin, and opened up about matters as personal as his faith and his son's girlfriends. On one of my first days covering McCain, another reporter protectively warned me that it was important to be judicious with the material I used from McCain's bus rides to keep the conversations in context.
Of course it wasn't the Honorable Mavericks(TM) fault this all had to end. It was the evil Libruls!!!!:
Liberals and late-night comedians would later revel in McCain's on-camera discomfort -- the widening of his eyes, the awkward silence while he clutched his jaw and formulated an answer. But I had come to respect McCain's frankness and his willingness to admit he didn't always have an answer. Watching the question morph into an embarrassing "gotcha moment" for cable television, my stomach churned and my cheeks grew hot.
Of course daring to ask McCain an unapproved quest clearly put this reporter In The Tank(TM):
McCain aide Brooke Buchanan sarcastically asked whether contraception was next on my agenda. And Steve Duprey, the candidate's usually jovial traveling companion who often visited the press cabin bearing Twizzlers and chocolate, twisted my question into what I interpreted as an accusation of bias: "Are you going to ask Obama if he uses Viagra?"
This line I find particularly funny. It is like the McCain campaign is acting out because he can't get it up for the press orgies any more. They left him for the young stallion Obama since McCain needs Viagra!
And here is the moment that ended the straight talk press orgy: