Daniel, McCain Doesn’t Have a Ranch, and You Know It

by David Safier

Daniel Scarpinato has written another one of his “investigative” pieces on McCain. While his earlier articles were pretty soft — a little negative, always balanced out with a lot of positive — this one is full-on cream puff.

And when Scarpinato refers to McCain’s “ranch” in the article, he’s wrong, and he knows it.

If you haven’t read Scarpinato’s front page story about how wonderful it would be for Sedona if McCain were President, you haven’t missed much. As a matter of fact, based on what I said in the last sentence, you can pretty much write it yourself.

The article refers to the McCain estate/retreat in Sedona as a ranch three times. And it refers to Bush’s “ranch” three times as well. The last reference to the McCain “ranch” tells the whole story:

And the national media have eaten it up, at times facing complaints from liberals that the McCains’ home is neither a ranch nor actually in Sedona.

Yup, that about says it. And, as I’m sure you know, the liberals are right. By any reasonable definition of the term, the McCain spread, acreage, vacation home, hideway — whatever you want to call it — is definitely not a ranch. This liberal laid it out way back in May. (Dr. Word Says: McCain Doesn’t Have a Ranch, Dammit!)

So Daniel, why insist on calling it a ranch? And why continue to refer to Bush’s place in Crawford using the same term when it’s just as incorrect?

What fries me here is that Scarpinato doesn’t use the term out of ignorance. He knows neither guy has a ranch. It’s possible Reagan did, but Bush and McCain, no. It’s either laziness or image building on his part.

And what fries me even more is, I’ve had a running battle with the Star about its unwillingness to cover any of McCain’s shady land deals for his friends that have gotten extensive coverage elsewhere, even in the AZ Republic. All I’ve gotten back is excuses. The NY Times got the Arizona part of its story wrong, but unmentioned was the fact that it got the California part right. The Star has its own investigative story going that will run after the convention. I guess that’s what they call Scarpinato’s pecks on McCain’s cheek: investigative reporting.

Just last week I emailed him about another article detailing how McCain helped our own Don Diamond in a profitable land deal at Fort Ord in California. Even though the story has everything Tucson might be interested in — a presidential candidate from Arizona who helped a well known Tucson real estate mogul reap huge profits from government property — the story has never been told here.

But a long story about how dreamy it would be if the McCain “ranch” were the Western White House? That gets front page coverage in the Sunday paper.

Oh, and one more thing. The place you refer to as “his ranch,” Daniel? It belongs to Cindy, not John. Prenup agreement. I’m sure you know that as well.