Reply #21: And that is why there's so much criticism of McCain in the corporate media.

[Marr]

It's very unusual for a Republican candidate to face any kind of examination of their character or policies. I think it's a manifestation of that much-talked-about rift between the GOP's corporate faction and it's ideological and religious factions.

These people know they've robbed about as much as they can, and now they're ready to back off. Any further robbery will result in a net loss for themselves via depression. The corporate faction wants to exploit the machine, they don't want to break it. The other two factions couldn't care less so long as their ideology is advanced.

The McCain campaign really ceased to have any influence on the news cycle right when the economic crisis came to the fore. It's conventional wisdom that the economy just overpowered the GOP political attacks in the mind of the public, and that's probably true on some level. But I think it was more about the economic establishment removing the McCain campaign's hand from the media rudder out of self interest.