Can someone in the news business really be this ill informed? Well, yeah, although in Arianna’s defense I think hers was less a case of genuine ignorance than a heavy-handed attempt to advance the anti-war agenda by spinning McCain’s poll numbers as proof that even Republicans had turned against the war. Greenwald, horrified at the prospect of Democratic electoral gains being rolled back by an erroneous meme favorable to the GOP, moved quickly to remind her that the base is very much on the wrong side of public opinion on this and voters shouldn’t forget it. Which brings us to the clip. What’s Schieffer’s excuse? Just trying to get St. John to say out loud that his disastrous immigration policies have been disastrous to his campaign? As much as I relish the thought of that, I’m … skeptical. Besides, McCain doesn’t really admit that here: he admits the issue’s hurt him but insists once again that he’s right, dead right, and you just relax and trust him, okay? Which ought to push his poll numbers a tiny bit lower.

That’s the first half of the clip. The second half is actually a defense of McCain, since Drudge decided to sandbag him this morning by linking to a video that didn’t fairly represent his comments about Hillary. Geraghty already called him on it. Compare the Drudge clip to the full exchange that follows.