Redstate

Posted at 11:49pm on Mar. 31, 2008 John McCain: Mainstream Press Bypass Candidate?

By Neil Stevens

Stephen Dinan at the Washington Times put forward a highly unconventional idea today: He suggests that John McCain bypassed an uncooperative press corps during the primary season by reaching out directly to the right on the Internet, and rode that support to victory.

Can he be serious? After all, the common sense viewpoint is that the Senator has spent the last decade making allies on television and in the newspapers, honing a Maverick™ image to make him the favorite Republican of the mainstream press. Patrick Hynes, who does Internet outreach for the campaign, seems to think it made no difference once McCain fell in the polls, says Dinan:

"During the unpleasantness, whenever Senator McCain put himself in front of reporters, the question was always, 'How much did you raise today, when are you dropping out,' " said Patrick Hynes, a conservative blogger who Mr. McCain hired in 2006.

So how did he deal with that and get his message out?

Read on...

Posted in 2008 | Internet | John McCain | primaries | The Press — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »