It's refreshing to finally see the MSM doing their jobs, starting to call out McCain on his lies, and to see all the diaries attesting to this, but there's a part of this that everyone seems not to to have noticed:
McCain doesn't care and doesn't think it matters.
http://www.politico.com/...
“Current campaign aides and other Republicans who’ve closely watched the race, however, have a very different response to the media elites and good-government scolds: we don’t care what you think. … ‘We recognize it’s not going to be 2000 again,’ said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, alluding to the media’s swooning coverage of McCain’s ill-fated crusade against then-Gov. George W. Bush and the GOP establishment. ‘But he lost then. We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.’”
So now we know their game plan. The question then becomes how best to address it.
More from Politico:
http://www.politico.com/...
THE BIG IDEA — HOW MCCAIN PLANS TO WIN — Politico’s Jonathan Martin: “McCain’s tactics are drawing the scorn of many in the media and organizations tasked with fact-checking the truthfulness of campaigns. In recent weeks, Team McCain has been described as dishonorable, disingenuous and downright cynical. A series of ads — ranging from accusations that Barack Obama backed teaching sex education to Illinois kindergartners to charges that Obama called Sarah Palin a lipstick-wearing pig — have provoked a cascade of criticism of McCain’s tactics.
“The furor presents a breathtaking contrast to McCain’s image as a kind of anti-politician who plays fair, disdains politics as usual and has never forgotten how his 2000 presidential campaign was incinerated by a series of loathsome dirty tricks in the South Carolina primary. The defense from the candidate himself — heard only on ‘The View’ because he hasn’t held a press conference in over a month — is to essentially claim he’s savaging Obama because the Illinois senator wouldn’t agree to the series of town hall meetings McCain proposed at the end of the Democratic primary season. …
“Current campaign aides and other Republicans who’ve closely watched the race, however, have a very different response to the media elites and good-government scolds: we don’t care what you think. … ‘We recognize it’s not going to be 2000 again,’ said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers, alluding to the media’s swooning coverage of McCain’s ill-fated crusade against then-Gov. George W. Bush and the GOP establishment. ‘But he lost then. We’re running a campaign to win. And we’re not too concerned about what the media filter tries to say about it.’”
Short version: We're running to win. Lying is a strategy that works. We've already factored in the MSM pushback on it and we still think it's a winning strategy.