Remember, the Times endorsed McCain

At Captain's Quarters, Captain Ed notes that, among other things, the Times' smear job on McCain may have done what seemed next to impossible -- won McCain the support of the conservative wing of the Republican Party.

The New York Times may have done the impossible for the John McCain campaign and for Republicans in general. As predicted yesterday when their strange and threadbare allegations hit print, the attack united conservatives behind McCain. It also may have been an act of seppuku for the Times, as its claim objectivity and credibility have been discredited. The Los Angeles Times surveys the damage...]
[[Bear in mind that both [Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham] had pressed hard before Super Tuesday to keep McCain from winning the nomination. They have no particular love for the Arizona Senator, and had kept up a steady drumbeat of criticism over his record. If the New York Times had actually produced a substantiated scandal involving McCain, they may have been the first to proclaim I told you so! from the tops of their transmitting stations.

Instead, the Times ran a piece of gossipy nonsense that doesn't even have the courage to allege what it only implies. Two self-described "disillusioned" former staffers who won't go on the record alleged -- what? -- that McCain had an affair? No. That McCain did favors for a romantic paramour? No. The Times reported that these two staffers somehow got past Mark Salter and John Weaver to stage a confrontation with McCain over their concerns that McCain might have possibly started to get close to thinking about a romance with Vicki Iseman.

Maybe the New York Times really does want McCain elected President, and this is their way of jiu-jitsu-ing him into first place.

....

Or maybe Pinch really is that stupid.