Sometimes, what gets lost amid all the hootenanny over whichcandidate the media is "in love" with is that there's no real evidencethat anyone benefits when a reporter or a talking head fawns all overan electoral contender. More often than not, you just get a bunch ofwater-muddying ads, such as the ones that seem to blame Barack Obamafor being a press darling despite having something of an aloof, andoften prickly, relationship with them.But it doesn't take affection, or leg-tingles, to do what Andrea Mitchell did today (via Jed Report),which is to take John McCain's despicable "Troops" ad and demonstratewhat a high-toned piece of gutter fraudulence it is. Displaying nothingmore than a studied neutrality in tone, and well-armed with the factsthat she herself obtained while overseas with both the CODEL and theObama campaign, Mitchell was a leader in the field of not letting lyingdogs sleep. Terming the ad "literally not true," and confidentlysumming up the ad as "inexplicable."Mitchell is absolutely right on the merits. From FactCheck.org: It's a fact that Obama canceled a visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at the last minute after planning it for weeks. And it's a fact that reporters and their cameras would not have been allowed to accompany him. Furthermore, Obama probably did go to the gym that day, as he does practically every day. So the bare facts stated in the ad are true, but they don't support McCain's insinuation. We can't read minds and so are in no position to know Obama's motives, or McCain's for that matter. It's unlikely, however, that the absence of press coverage would have been a factor in Obama's decision, as the ad implies. Obama says he never planned to take reporters on the Landstuhl visit, and Department of Defense rules prohibited him from taking reporters on previous visits he made with wounded troops. Reporters were not allowed to accompany him when he visit...