McCain Has Become A Mean Old Man

And with his dishonest new ads and increasingly hostile behavior, is the media starting to take notice?

Sen. John McCain, American war hero and admired political maverick, as well as presumed Republican nominee for president, had a message for Elisabeth Bumiller, the venerated New York Times reporter, along with the rest of the media assigned to travel with him the week of July 20.

"What do you want, you little jerks?" McCain said to Bumiller and those behind her, as the press surged forward on the "Straight Talk" Boeing 737 on July 21.

No one ever accused the Arizona senator of not being blunt. But he had come a long way from the media-friendly, boyishly charming, brazenly honest, free-wheeling McCain that so many in the media had come to love during the 2000 Republican primary. That man was now gone. Vanished....

But McCain's real transformation occurred when he began to attack his opponent. There was a time when McCain labeled Obama as "naive," for wanting to sit down with the leaders of Iran and put together a definitive 16-month pullout from Iraq. Last week, however, the GOP's likely nominee grew increasingly angry at Obama, then on a well-chronicled and supremely-successful tour of the Middle East and Europe. Last Monday McCain indicated that Obama had no right to the Oval Office, dismissing him as "someone who has no military experience whatsoever." The following day McCain went even further, saying, "It seems to me Sen. Obama would rather lose a war to win a campaign."

With that, it felt like the McCain of 2000 had disappeared entirely. His rage has blinded him to missed opportunities, to moments where he could make people remember who he was during that long-ago golden primary race and, more important, what his domestic agenda will be. Should he win, he will do so as a man unrecognizable from the one that made himself into a beloved political figure eight years ago. If any of the man that was John McCain still exists, it will be a long and difficult struggle to find him.

If McCain continues to feel like he is losing the race, expect him to continue getting nastier and nastier. The press will realize that cuddly old McCain isn't such a nice guy after all. And perhaps the voters will notice too.