Weigel

John McCain Blames the Media for GOP’s Surprising Failure to Lay a Glove on Hillary Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets US Senator John MCCain (R-AZ) before she testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September 11, 2012 attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on January 23, 2013. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images) Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

John McCain, 2013, describing why Hillary Clinton skated out of a full day of Benghazi hearings.

She obviously has an adoring media.

John McCain, 2005:

During a question-answer session on Monday with Newsweek Magazine’s Evan Thomas, McCain felt so confident in front of the audience that he jokingly referred to the media as “my base.”

You could make the same point by presenting any yearlong schedule of Sunday show appearances – every year, McCain dominates. One reason why McCain’s dogged campaign against Susan Rice got so much coverage is that the media parkours over walls to cover the senior senator from Arizona. Former presidential candidate goes to war against guy who beat him twice – a great story!

Here, McCain’s slapping the media for something that wasn’t the media’s fault. After four months of fulmination, McCain’s time with Clinton was a near-total waste – a frustrated speech, embedded with questions, that gave Clinton time only for one evasive responsive.

My wrap on the hearings is here.