If the time ever comes—and I hope to Maude it doesn't; I hope more than I can possibly explain (though this and this may give you some idea)—when we are looking for reasons why McCain managed to beat either Obama or Hillary, let us remember this article, which gave us reason after nausea-inducing reason why the press loves their straight-talkin' maverick war hero, like "McCain is an ironist wooing a group of individuals who regard ironic detachment more highly than sincerity or seriousness."

And let us not point our fingers first and foremost at whichever candidate fails to get the nomination, nor whichever candidate gets the nomination, nor even whatever monstrously overpaid and congenitally underskilled Democratic strategists s/he uses to run his/her campaign, but at a press who values hanging out with the "coolest kid in school" (barf! ack! gag!) more than sincerity and seriousness, even as they are tasked with conveying to the American electorate the facts about the people interested in being their leader.