Why is McCain considered such a maverick?

[babylonsister]

He has flipped and flopped so much, I don't have a clue.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. A carefully cultivated image underpinned by a complicit/compliant media

[babylonsister]

11. So whatever it takes, he will go there. I remember 8 years ago,

I lost my respect and it's going downhill. Now he's the 'maverick' again?

[OwnedByFerrets]

12. What he said.......

I heard today that its because he cultivated this image from years of letting the press into every meeting and every part of his life. They are paying him back for that access.

[Atman]

2. Good PR people and a compliant media.

Nothing more. There is nothing "maverick" about him, unless you consider having the balls enough to look America in the eye and LIE to be the sign of a maverick. In which case, Hillary is one, too.

.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Because he once meekly protested the Boy-King's actions

He eventually gave in.

And for that, he must be eternally punished.

[tekisui]

4. Early branding.

He has a history of talking candidly to reporters in the past. Early in his runs, he was accessible and accommodating to the press, they are returning the favor now.

That is what I heard on piece about him.

[blondeatlast]

10. As a longtime AZer, I've heard quite the opposite. AZ media was complicit

with him in that AZ media is notoriously RW (we vrought you Dan Quayle via the Arizona Republic).

Friends in current local media say that he's mean, petuent, and will call them out personally if he doesn't get his way--or if they even dare to ask a question he wasn't given a prompt for.

Even old-time, respected Republican politicians--you know, like Barry Goldwater and Governor Jane Hull--were rumored to truly dislike Bush III (dba Mccain).

YMMV--but after watching the guy for 20 years from the state he represents--I'd bet on what I've heard.

[tekisui]

13. Then why does the media fall for him now, and give him a pass?

[blondeatlast]

16. Why do they give Bush II, cheney, Rove, Petaeus, Gonzales, etc a pass?

I can't answer either question, but I guarantee that the REAL AZ press avoids him at all costs (I've heard of producers for news stories, as a good friend is, draw straws when he has to be covered due to his temper).

[GoesTo11]

5. Actions speak louder than words.

"John McCain is here. John McCain, John McCain, what a maverick! Somebody find out what fork he used on his salad, because I guarantee you it wasn't a salad fork. This guy could have used a spoon! There's no predicting him. By the way, Senator McCain, it's so wonderful to see you coming back into the Republican fold. I have a summer house in South Carolina; look me up when you go to speak at Bob Jones University. So glad you've seen the light, sir."

- Stephen Colbert.

http://www.mediacynic.com/cgi-bin/mediacynic.pl?cynic=501061

[Cleita]

6. Somebody said it, so it must be true.

Considering that the Bush campaign smeared him all over the place as being as close to anti-American as you could get when he ran against someone none of us thought had a chance to be President (remember?) he was branded by the puplicityrrazi as a "maverick". Propaganda is so promiscuous it just breeds and breeds.

[babylonsister]

19. How bizarre is that now? Propaganda rules. Maybe some mouths

need to change this.

[Fireweed247]

7. I think he was more of a maverick...

back when he was running against Bush for the Republican nomination. I remember thinking he was a decent Republican(perhaps the only one) and now he is a complete idiot warmonger who cannot even think for himself, he has to ask Bush what he thinks. I think the Bushies turned him into a Manchurian candidate for them. Either that or he is just some nutjob that had a face transplant so he would look like McCain and the real McCain is locked away in Cheney's bunker somewhere.

[hedgehog]

8. Thanks babylonsister - I was getting worried that things would get boring

around here once the primaries are over!

[EFerrari]

9. He was when he was in school.

He rebelled against the career his family laid out for him -- that's one reason he graduated nearly at the bottom of his class. Drinking, drugging, whoring, everything -ing. It ended there, pretty much, as far as I can tell.

[babylonsister]

14. Whoring and drugging!! Do we have proof?!

:evilgrin: I think I need to read his biography.

[EFerrari]

17. I heard it on teevee. I guess the presstitutes

don't say it loud or often!

lol

[blondeatlast]

15. Well, I know people don't like hearing ill about Mrs. Bush III but

seeing as she was his ticket to the Danforths (owners of the then very powerful Arizona Republic newspaper and spawners of Dan Quayle) and Charles Keating, I suspect she put him on a very short leash concerning that behavior.

[babylonsister]

18. Mrs. Cindy McCain? nt

[blondeatlast]

21. Yes. nt

[Ghost in the Machine]

20. Maybe they mean that he's like a Ford Maverick- - irrelevant since the late 70's..

[timtom]

22. Why was Reagan considered the "Great Communicator"?

Marketing.