Could Martin Wisckol be any more of a talentless hack?

Yes, I'm sure there are some ways that Martin Wisckol of the Orange County Register/OC Register could be even more of a talentless hack, but after reading this phone interview with John McCain I'm having a bit of difficulty imagining exactly how he could do it.

It features the stock trick of asking a politician the price of something. One might think that tricks like that are played out, but apparently the news hasn't reach Wiskol, who tries to trip up McCain on the price of gas. That's noted by ThinkProgress here: thinkprogress.org/2008/06/28/mccain-gas-prices-unaware/

On the immigration front, his questions were just as shopworn, first asking McCain how he's going to thread the needle between the GOP base (which largely supports our laws) and Hispanics (some of whom don't think our laws apply to those of their race/ethnicity). He then pretends that McCain isn't "supporting an amnesty of some sort". In case that was a trick designed to get him to say that he supports amnesty, even McCain is smarter than that. However, it was almost certainly not a trick and Martin Wiscol was simply confused over what he's read on other sites. His final question on the topic is - wait for it in all its Sovietski-style glory - this:

"It sounds as though you believe that there is a good, practical compromise strategy that can be reached."

What did he expect the answer to be, "no"?

Please send an email to mwisckol *at* ocregister.com and let him know that there are plenty of real questions that McCain should be asked about this topic, and that if he doesn't want to be considered simply a talentless hack he should consider trying to ask them.

UPDATE: I didn't bother parsing the gas prices-related portions of the "interview", but this site did:

McCain isn't saying he doesn't know the price of gas. He is saying that he doesn't remember the last time he pumped his own gas, and how much it cost then.

UPDATE 2: ThinkProgress continues to be a bad joke, this time by providing an update at the link given above:

Patterico claims that McCain's cluelessness was in reference to the last time he pumped gas, not the price of gas itself. If true, that means McCain did not answer the reporter's question about how much is the price of gas during the interview.

Obviously it's true, and obviously TP doesn't want to admit they were once again caught trying to mislead their readers. I wish I'd paid more attention to that part of the interview to begin with, but that part doesn't matter all that much. What we need to have happen is someone who's familiar with an issue and who isn't a corrupt hack press McCain on an issue, whether involving energy or involving immigration.

Immigration2008a · Sat, 06/28/2008 - 17:40 · · Importance: 1