In "School is Hell," Matt Groening identified the "9 Types of College Professors."  One of my favorites was "the single theory to explain everything maniac" and the warning at the bottom ("warning: theory may be correct.")

So, here I am, the single theory to explain everything maniac, back to remind everyone that McCain's pronouncement that Barack Obama is a dangerous liberal extremist was entirely predicable and surprising only because it is coming a little ahead of schedule. 

Once again, this is coming from the standard old reliable GOP game plan that they've executed in every election for the last quarter century. 

In June and July, the Democratic nominee is a convictionless, unprincipled flip-flopper (and his wife is unpatriotic).  From August to October, he's the most scariest, liberalest liberal extremest ever to darken the corridors of power in these United States (and his wife is unpatriotic). 

The only news here is that they've elevated the "liberal extremist" to their candiates talking points a little early.  Usually, the "most liberal politician ever!" thing is only whispered by surrogates before the conventions, just to warm up the meme, you see, so the MSM doesn't hit it cold.  Usually it only becomes the main line for their candidate during or after their convention.   

And, like clockwork, every four years, the MSM obediently laps up the GOP talking points from those musty old pages (it's still in hardcopy, in a three ring binder, of course, because their candidates never seem to know how to use computers) and faithfully regurgitates them to the public like they're brand new, revealed wisdom.  And never, ever, ever do they dare point out that the Republicans have been running this same scam in every election since 1984.   Nor, indeed may they even take note of the glaring contradiction between claiming someone's actions show them to have made a career out of opportunistic flip-flopping and having made a career of being a rigid proto-Marxist ideologue. 

So yeah, evidently, the  flip-flopper thing ran out of gas a couple of weeks sooner than usual, and that is a little bit interesting.  Otherwise, its just the same banality that's made journalism what it is today over these last two and a half decades. 

However, the early roll out of Phase II of the GOP All-Purpose Master Plan for Electoral Victory does give me an opportunity to tie my two theories of American electoral meme-age into one grand Unified Theory of General Election Banality.  

Yes, on the basis of anecdotes, some screeds written by real bloggers like Somersby and Greenfield and Josh, and my own dogmatic faith in the power of written snark to reveal actual truth, I dare to theorize that the overlap between the Republican game plan and my "only four stories" theory of MSM general election coverage is not a coincidence. 

For the overwhelming majority of you who find me totally unmemorable or, worse, have blotted my posts out of their minds because I'm a clear and present danger to their liberties and, indeed, to their precious bodily fluids, my "only four stories" theory was laid out here in a post that took an unexpected turn into a calm, reasoned examination of my own  political leanings. 

  Briefly, the "four stories" theory goes like this: the MSM only has four stories in the summer and fall of an election year:  

1.  The Democratic nominee is a flip-flopping unmanly flip-flopper (before the convention).

2.  The Democractic nominee is the most liberalest librul who ever liberalized a government institution, a terrifyingly extreme extremist in his librulizm (after the convention). 

3.  John McCain is a straight-talking maverick who says what he means and means what he says.  If it comes out of his mouth its true so you don't need to check it and you better not challenge it (he was tortured for his country you know, but don't mention it because he hates to talk about it).   

4.  Oh those silly, squabbling, back-biting, disorganized Democrats!  Har har har!  The idea that they could run a government is too laughable to seriously contemplate. 

The reason for the overlap is obvious to devotees of the liberal blog critique of the MSM.  After decades of abuse by Republicans for their supposed "liberal bias,"  the MSM became so accomodating to the will of its abuser that was incapable of even perceiving a fact that cannot be pounded into one of these frames.

There are encouraging signs of recovery among some members of the MSM which seem to date to the shock of Katrina, but breaking free of the effects of abuse cannot be accomplished overnight.  The tendency to fall back into the supplicating behaviors and learned helplessness is ever-present.  And, of course, some never break free and, indeed, are incapable of even perceiving that they have a problem. 

So anyhoo, the only real question is whether the Republicans, having activated the "liberal extremist"  phase this early can stick with it until November and, if not, whether the MSM's collective head will explode in the face of a mounting flood of facts that can't fit into one of their four frames.