Tina Brown: Dishonorable McCain Should Be a Better Loser

Former New Yorker editor Tina Brown appeared on Thursday's "Good Morning America" to plug her new website and asserted that "what people are really interested in" is whether Senator John McCain is losing in a dishonorable manner. While describing "The Daily Beast," a Huffington Post-style blog site, she whined that "what I feel strongly is a sense that people are regretting [sic] the old John McCain" and complained, "Like, what happened to this man who was such, a kind of, honorable, great American? The campaign doesn't seem to live up to his sense of honor in any way. And he's really changing."

Now, is that what "people" are really interested in or just people in New York City? Brown's chiding continued as she questioned, "...If McCain loses, will he feel a great regret that he didn't lose this time with as much honor as he lost last time?" Agreeing that the former Vanity Fair editor had hit on a hot topic, co-host Robin Roberts fretted, "That's what some people are talking about." On a blog for her site, Brown was even nastier. She mused that after McCain referred to Obama as "that one" during the presidential debate, the Democrat "watched him from his Frank Sinatra stool with the look of a family visitor marveling at the antics of the household’s resident crazy uncle."

With condescending sympathy, Brown also blogged, "This is all horrible to those of us who once fell in love with McCain's flinty heroism and independence. It's as if he when he made the decision that fateful day on August 10th, 2004 in Pensacola, Florida to grit his teeth and bear hug Bush, he contracted a political virus that ate away at the nobility of his soul."

In comparison, Brown appeared on "Good Morning America" on August 9, 1999 to embarrassingly gush over the marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton: "What you feel is this is a couple who share the passion for the world, for doing good for politics, for making life better for other people. This is their great bond, and it really has brought them together with almost a sort of spiritual intensity."

A transcript of the exchange between Roberts and Brown, which occurred at 8:43am, follows:

ROBIN ROBERTS: And now, magazine guru- you like that? Tina Brown, is here this morning. The former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker is set to conquer a whole new medium, the internet. She is launching a website. It's called the Daily Beast. The motto is read this, skip that. Because they carefully choose their content to give you only the hottest, most interesting stories, such as yourself.

TINA BROWN: Correct. Yes.

ROBERTS: Politics is really hot right now.

BROWN: Very hot, indeed. And the Daily Beast is chowing down everyday the most exciting political stuff and putting up only those the stories that we know that you're going to talk about.

ROBERTS: And what is it that people are talking about when it comes to politics right now? The two candidates?

BROWN: Well, what I think what people are really interested in is, obviously, you know, there's a huge direction right now for Barack Obama, that he's really winning, at the moment, anyway, unless something dramatic happens. I think what I feel strongly is a sense that people are regretting [sic] the old John McCain. Like, what happened to this man who was such, a kind, of honorable, great American? The campaign doesn't seem to live up to his sense of honor in any way. And he's really changing. And I feel what is sad, in a way, and what I wrote about actually this week on the site, was, just, if McCain loses, will he feel a great regret that he didn't lose this time with as much honor as he lost last time?

ROBERTS: And you're a friend of his. You've known him for a while.

BROWN: I really have a great affection for him. I like him enormously.

ROBERTS: I know you do.

BROWN: I admire him. You know, I think he's fantastic. But he has run a campaign in the last weeks which has not been to his credit.

ROBERTS: That's what some people are talking about. The Daily Beast. There's a lot out there on the internet. What sets this apart? What's different about this website?

BROWN: What's different is we are really like the smart, amusing friend, who e-mails on the great stuff and says have you read this? We go through everything. I mean, we get in at 5:00 in the morning. And we just chow it all down. We read it all for you. And we only give you the ten things every day, which we feel are going to provoke you, interest you, inform you, make you laugh. They're the ten things which are the hottest stories of the day, which you're going to talk about at work, and come off as informed and engaged in the conversation. 'Cause none of us have any time.