Testy, testy!

Is McCain canceling his Larry King interview to punish CNN for daring to ask some medium-tough questions of one of his spokesgeeks, or is he just afraid that even Larry King might ask him questions he’d rather not answer?

Did John McCain really cancel a Larry King appearance to punish CNN for this interview?

Or, as Kevin Drum suspects, is that just an excuse to keep McCain from having to answer questions, even from the softest of softballers?

Note that the interview only looks relentless because Tucker Bounds was defending such an absurd position. The interviewer doesn’t even mention that the Adjutant General of the Alaska National Guard says the governor isn’t even briefed about the Guard’s national-security (as opposed to disaster-relief) activities.

Apparently McCain’s people have given Charles Gibson of ABC the sole McCain interview of the week. How deep in the tank do you think Gibson promised to go?

Footnote If there were a Pulitzer Prize for sheer arrogance and presumption in flackery, this from the McCain press shop would have to be a finalist:

… a relentless refusal by certain on-air reporters to come to terms with John McCain’s selection of Alaska’s sitting governor as our party’s nominee for vice president …

Since when has it been the job of reporters to “come to terms” with decisions by politicians, rather than inquiring about those decisions?

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com