McCain Camp Ignores Questions About Candidate’s Military Record

By Jeff Stein, CQ Staff

Evidently taking a page from John Kerry ’s quest for the presidency in 2004, John McCain ’s campaign has decided — for now, anyway — not to respond to provocative attacks aimed squarely at his strong point: his reputation as a military hero.

The much talked about main broadside came in the form of a 12,000-word attack in Rolling Stone (“Make Believe Maverick,” by Tim Dickinson), which portrayed the hard-partying young McCain as a reckless pilot who totaled three jets, and whose career as a pilot was saved only by the pull of his father, commander of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet during the Vietnam War.

The piece, which Rolling Stone says has garnered 2.5 million hits on the magazine’s Web site since Oct. 6, has been the talk of the liberal blogosphere, but gotten zero attention from the mainstream media. …

The Rolling Stone piece … calls into question McCain’s military legend. …

“I doubt it will have much of an impact.,” says New York Times media columnist David Carr.

“There is a vertical axis of information in conservative circles that the swift boat moved on that is not replicated by liberals,” Carr said “The conservative talk radio shows have an ability to metastasize and amplify negative stories, and they won’t be punching in on this one.”

Washington Post blogger Dan Froomkin, a frequent Bush critic, agreed.

“One enormous difference compared to Kerry, in my mind, is that the [mainstream media], with the exception of the LA Times, has refused to pick up any elements of this story, whereas it served (wittingly and unwittingly) as a massive echo chamber for the Swift boating,” according to Froomkin.