John McCain as seen by the Arizona media

We know that the Washington Press Corps loves John McCain, but that's because he has courted them for twenty years and because they have never covered him closely. There is another John McCain, one obvious to many in Arizona, and one not well liked.

Here is a report from an Arizona reporters who has covered McCain in depth for many years. It is a McCain the Republican conservatives will undoubtedly love, but not one the Washington Press Corp really wants known.

"That's the thing about covering John McCain. Someone always wants you to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Is it really the job of the Washington Political Press to always give John McCain the benefit of the doubt and refuse to investigate or report on his negative side? McCain certainly thinks so.

Here is Digby describing John McCain:

He's always been a jackass. And he still is. This idea that St John McCain really doesn't want to go negative but is being forced to by his Rovian campaign staff is ridiculous and yet I hear it all the time from the MSM. Anyone who tells the mean, cruel jokes he tells is a mean man. He likes going negative --- he just doesn't like taking responsibility for it because that tarnishes his halo and makes him just like every other nasty Republican. His massive ego can't accommodate such ordinariness.

He's very erratic and when you combine that with his temper and his love of war, you get something even scarier than Bush and Cheney. It would be a nightmare if he becomes the president.

In many ways, McCain very closely resembles the man he wants to replace as President - George W. Bush. He's lazy, egotistical, quite nasty and delegates to those he likes without checking up on how well they do. But he goes beyond Bush in having a hair-trigger temper. His foreign policy advisers are the worst of the same NeoCons who suckered Bush into invading Iraq, while his domestic advisers are primarily lobbyists for the wealthiest groups and individuals in America. But beyond Bush, McCain has never seen a war he didn't like. McCain wants to scatter American bases even further around the world, while having no idea how to pay for them (he's actually pushing even more tax cuts for a government that cannot balance the budget or act to improve the economy.)

But of course, the Washington Political Press corps just doesn't do policy reporting. At least not when the Republican candidate has no policies of any level of realism at all.

Go read the report from Arizona. McCain's not the man we want to run the American government for the next four years.