Grumpster McCain

At a press conference Monday I had an interesting conversation with some reporters, the upshot of which was that it is not widely known just how little access John McCain gives to the media now -- and that it will be interesting to see how that plays when the real campaign stretch begins a week from Friday. That's when the big media will begin really tagging along daily with the campaign (until now, it's remained much more a Hillary/Obama obsession), and it shouldn't take long for them to start getting seriously annoyed at never, ever, getting to ask any questions of the candidate, let alone get a 'straight talk' answer. Given how petulantly self-obsessed the media tends to be -- witness the on-air bitchfest about the long lines at Pepsi Center security, which have actually moved quickly and don't seem to be bothering anybody except the media -- you can bet the secreting away of the candidate will be made into an issue, and affect coverage.

That was the gist of that conversation on Monday. This morning, I see this Time Magazine piece; Exhibit A?