As I was searching the Web for John McCain and his supposedly affair with the lobbyist Vicki Iseman I came across several blogs that made very interesting points about the situation.
On Spin Cycle one of its bloggers John Riley made the comment of how long will this issue last since both parties are saying that there was no affair. How far can reporters go to make this matter even bigger? Even though I am a journalist myself I know that journalists sometimes make the mistake of running a story that they might still not have completely. I think this was a story to really think about because it can affect McCain greatly during his presidential campaign. The story would had made more sense if one of the parties came out saying it was true but both are saying nothing happened. Why try to make this story bigger if no one is being hurt? Even if it is true neither one seems to have a problem with it. It would not be something new for McCain to have an affair since he already has a history of having affairs. I don’t agree that the story should be ongoing if we have both McCain and Iseman already saying that it is not true. If it is true that McCain was doing some illegal things then the story can keep running, but it seems to me more people are worried right now about if he cheated or not than if he was doing favors for the lobbyist.
On No More Incumbents Blog Brettbum mentioned that “Politicians like all Americans are still human an subject to human mistakes.” I definitely agree with Brettbum. Why does it have to be such a big deal if he had an affair or not? An affair has nothing to do with how he will run the country. He can have an affair and still run the country successfully. Like Brettbum said it even happened to Bill Clinton and he was doing fine as president. Clinton’s affair had nothing to do with the decisions he was making for the country. I think Americans take this matter to an extreme. Politicians can’t be perfect human beings. I would rather have McCain have an affair than for him to make a big mistake while running our country and it affecting us all. Emotional issues are very different from political issues. I agree with Brettbum that they attack politicians this way since that is what affects them the most when it comes down to their career. I think it is very unfair because even though in the eyes of some it is a sin to cheat it would be far worse if he had committed a crime such as murder. At least when you have an affair you can give an apology, but you can never bring a person back from the dead.
On Political Base Mark Nickolas made the statement that if this affair did actually occur then McCain’s party will start to go down. I definitely agree with this since McCain is trying to get the most conservative people on his side. Conservatives would take this very seriously, and it would make most of them change their minds over McCain. The timing of this story still hurts McCain since there is still enough time for Conservatives to chose another party. If the story would have ran in November it would had also affected McCain by getting him out of the race much faster. Either way it goes it affects him negatively. Maybe if it was ran in November things could have been cleared up faster, but even with that happening it already puts doubt in people’s minds. Conservatives will go with whoever they think is more conservative. McCain has worked and is still working so hard to get Conservatives on his side that allegations like these can mess it up for him. Nickolas also raised a very good question about whether Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are still in the race because of this story. Nickolas wonders if both candidates knew about the situation and that is why they remained in the race even though their chances of winning were low. This makes me think the same. I had already asked myself why Romney suspended his campaign and why Huckabee still kept on when he is far away from winning. It makes me think that maybe the affair is true. However, my opinion doesn’t change that affairs have nothing to do with politics.
On Stumper blogger Andrew Romano points out that this story is only important if it is true that McCain did favors for lobbyist Iseman and not if he had an affair or not. I agree with him. If McCain did have an affair there is nothing illegal about that, but if he did favors for Iseman then that is illegal. Then I would agree that this story is important and one that should be told. This would let people find out the things politics do behind close doors. There are a lot of illegal matters that never come out to public because they are always covered up by the government. I would much rather read a story about what a political figure is doing illegally than a story that explains who is cheating on who. That belongs in entertainment news and with celebrities. Reporters should stick to what really matters. I have read so many blogs over this situation, and mostly all of them touch on the affair and just mention in one or two sentences the illegal issues. The New York Times reporters do have a story here, but they just need to focus on what really is important.
On Paul Levinson’s Infinite Regress Levinson makes a great point about the sourcing the newspaper did. Levinson comments, “the public interest requires real names of real sources.” I definitely agree with him because like he mentioned in his blog a story as big as this one should have named sources and not unnamed ones. This makes the public doubt the credibility of the newspaper because there is no real proof. This makes the public believe the newspaper itself and people want to make their own judgments as Levinson explains. I agree because even when I read a newspaper I always check who is the person that is being quoted or from where is the information being obtain to see if I can really trust what they are saying. I don’t think The New York Times did right in running the story at this time. It should have waited to make sure it was really true and should have done some more research. It needs sources that can prove the allegations, and without those sources the story is not very believable. This makes all accusations very unclear.
Here are two videos that give reactions to the situation.
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2 comments:
The real issue is the ethics of the senator if it is revealed that there was indeed an affair, and he had been lying about it.
Maybe its not as bad as former president Bill Clinton, who lied under oath, but still, can America trust him?.
In due time, we will find out more about John McCain's Secret Relationship
Good post. You did an excellent job of linking and describing the posts you found and incorporating your opinion into the commentary.
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