No Forrestalling The Inevitable?

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Somehow, poring over the Super Tuesday Eve pics, all the best material kept coming up McCain.

Perhaps it was pure coincidence, but I take it to mean that Hillary and Barack will only be passing another mile marker, while tomorrow, across the fence, we are likely to witness the true opposition emerge.

Anyway, I found these three images interesting in different ways.  Regarding the first shot (from Saturday), I did a double-take after reading the caption.  It states:

Sen. John McCain carries luggage belonging to a member of the traveling press as he boards his charter plane at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport en route to Nashville.

It’s an open secret that McCain caters to the media (see below).  But the symbolism of McCain, like a bell man, actually carrying hefting the reporter’s baggage for them?  That’s too perfect.  (Is he delivering coffee, too?)

In the second shot, we see John and Cindy talking to reporters in Connecticut on Sunday. (Geez, what’s with all the coffee cups?)  In the foreground — already in our face — is an issue of LIFE from July ’67 featuring the fire aboard the USS Forrestal.    Stationed off Vietnam, McCain was on board the carrier at the time (about three months before he was shot down and became a POW).  The fire, by the way, was caused by a fighter jet accidentally firing a rocket while on deck.

If this isn’t the cheesiest, heavy-handed way to begin pumping us with hero propaganda.  Enjoy this time, because, believe me, you are going to be sick to death of McCain’s war persona before you know it.  (Also, unless McCain gets completely in his own way, we might see something of a lesson as to how Kerry should have done it.)

Finally, this gothic shot (courtesy of the TV lights) features Romney in a pancake house in Nashville, teaming up with Rick Santorum, one of the featured names on that long list of conservative McCain haters.  The two pols share an all-American breakfast with John Q. Public — or Holly and Bill from Nashville, along with their two children.  Mitt seems to toast the couple with a glass of juice.

Rick helps reprise the visual vocabulary of the old religious right.  I mean, we’re talking about sitting down with a family — one family, when the rest of the candidates are bouncing around between 22 different states — in order to emphasize family values.  And, we’re talking, the South.  And pancakes. With folks** like Rick, Holly and Bill convinced that McCain is selling out, Romney is, uh, juicing the winguts for all he’s worth.  (Or, for all he used to be worth.)

(** Hey, I just wanted to say the word “folks” one more time, before that disappears, too.)

For Democrats, engaging with the press brings friction (LAT — Rather surprising “complaint” article about restrictions on Hillary, Obama’s traveling press.  Makes favorable comparison to McCain)

Dana Milbank – The Mouths That Run Against McCain (WAPO)

GOP Senators Reassess Views About McCain (WAPO)

One Day to Go (NYT Slide Show)



(image 1: Charles Dharapak/AP.  Feb. 2, 2008.  Chicago.  Via YahooNews.  image 2: Jim Young/Reuters.  February 3, 2008.  Connecticut.  Via YahooNews.  image 3: Richard Perry/The New York Times.  Feb. 4, 2008.  Nashville.  Via nytimes.com)