I was talking about the "game" people have to play when they are in the media spotlight, to stay in the spotlight.
This game is slightly different for politicians than it is for actors, or for news anchors or other establishment media sources, but the core concepts are the same.
What's happening on the ground (the truth as it were) is of secondary importance to how that truth is perceived and spun.
Whoever most successfully spins the truth, gains traction for their specific narrative of events with the populace.
Whether that narrative has any relevance to the "truth" is not important to many of our current class of power brokers (the people who shape public opinion).
I wasn't really talking about the actions of McCain et al. specifically at that point, but musing on the games the powerful play to stay that way.
This game I think, is one of the primary reasons people hate politics. A good example of this, would be the argument that politicians never say what they mean.
The problem, one that I don't think many understand, is that to even get a foot in the door one has to play the game (with a few notable exceptions mostly revolving around having money and access before deciding to play the game).
The game makes all the players dirty, but veteran players of the game won't trust someone who isn't equally dirty, or to put it more clearly won't operate under the accepted rule set therefore making the clean new player unpredictable, and consequently a potential liability to veteran players.
This train of discussion might not have cleared up much for you given it's fairly esoteric subject matter, but I hope it may prompt you to ask more questions that I'll do my best to answer.