Another Meghan McCain Story

The other day, a colleague and I were discussing the media phenomenon that is Meghan McCain, when I wondered aloud why Tina Brown and the Daily Beast had decided to hire her as a columnist. Sure, she generates tons of press every time she takes to the keypad or opens her mouth, but is she actually saying anything of value?

As the daughter of presidential candidate John McCain, there has been natural interest in what Meghan has had to say, especially when she turned her attention to blogging her impressions from the campaign trail. But even greater interest has generated in her now that the electoral contest has passed. In part, that's because Ms. McCain is a no-nonsense, down-to-earth kind of person. She's far less abrasive than, say, Joe the Plumber, and is smarter, too, despite what Laura Ingraham has to say about it.

What's interesting about Meghan is the way in which people try to use her to score political points. Over the past two weeks, I've seen stories that report her having slammed President Obama, slammed Laura Ingram, slammed Republican bachelors, slammed Ann Coulter (hard), slammed Michael Steele and Sarah Palin, and slammed Obama critics (presumably not herself). That's a whole lot of slamming going on.

But while Meghan is smart, and tech-savvy, she's not exactly a leading political voice. Her blog posts are mildly entertaining, and her interviews rather half-baked. She never quite seems to have grasped the underlying arguments of a given subject deeper than the surface shimmer, as this recent encounter with Rachel Maddow illustrated:



That Ms. McCain thinks she can magically re-make the GOP without having to stake out even a basic position on economic philosophy is truly telling. Still, she's drawing eyeballs to screens across the country. Suffice it to say that's reason enough--in the eyes of some--for her continued presence on our media stage.