by Mark Silva John McCain appears to have found a new adversary in his long-waged bid for the presidency: The American media. While Democratic rival Barack Obama sweeps across Europe, figuratively tearing down old "walls'' of division and amassing crowds of not only adoring Germans but also Frenchmen, McCain has his eyes on another crowd: The evening news anchors and camera crews who have followed Obama to Europe. "My opponent, of course, is traveling in Europe," McCain said yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, picking his own symbolic middle American, electoral battleground backdrop, the German Village neighborhood, to offset Obama's dramatic appearance before the masses in Berlin. The Paris-bound Obama would soon encounter a scene familiar to repeat-Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, McCain suggested: "A throng of adoring fans awaits Sen. Obama - and that's just the American press.'' Vintage McCain, with a biting humor for his adversaries, followed by a smile - in this case, though, that adversary is the press. His campaign had made a similar point already, issuing baggage tags for its own diminished press contingent - the "junior varsity,'' camp McCain dubbed them, in both English and French. Curious move for a candidate critical of the media's deployment on Obama's summer tour: Ridiculing the reporters traveling with McCain. McCain faces another media calculation in the weeks ahead: The timing of his announcement of a running mate ...
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