The Gist

McCain Now Denies Outright

I don't think this is finished by any stretch and McCain's outright denial today may come back to haunt. Why didn't he give that kind of denial to the Times when they were working on story? Why instead did he have his lawyers threatening them for three months to not run the story? What did they nail down -- and what else do they have -- that made them finally go with it? What was lawyered out of the story for now?

Of course, the media is all up-in-arms about it, their darling McCain now attacked by the horrible New York Times. I've seen the word "smear" countless times on my television. Will the conservatives now rally around him?