In 2000, Sen. "Walnuts" McCain was running in the Rethugs' South Carolina primary for the presidential nomination. His only opposition was none other than George "Dumbya" Bush. An anonymous smear campaign was launched against McCain, which alleged that his wife was a drug abuser and his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was an illegitimate African-American baby that McCain fathered. McCain lost the primary.
As Glenn Greenwald points out, the mainstream media has always avoided probing the source of the smears, although it was obvious that the only beneficiary was Dumbya, who was the kind of guy the dopes in the media "wanted to have a beer with." The media never followed the trail of the smear back to its origin in likeable Dumbya's campaign, which was being run by Rove. To this day, they act mystified as to where the smear could have come from. Now, eight years later, during this primary season, they're trying to make amends with some rather fawning press for Walnuts. The more things change, etc.
