The American media has, for better or worse, embraced the criterion that if a given subject tells us anything - no matter how broadly - about the kind of president a particular candidate might be, it’s fair game.

That’s how it’s been for Sen. Barack Obama in the past several months, and for rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a lot longer than that.

Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, has been more or less exempt from such scrutiny, in large part because won the GOP nomination long ago.

The honeymoon’s over, though.

As we shift towards general election mode, the Boston Phoenix came up with a list of 10 John McCain stories worth pursuing in the next few months …

1. He doesn’t “get” economics.
Not that we do, but we’re not running for president - and he himself said this! More than once! Beyond a wide array of tax cuts, what makes John McCain think he can keep America’s economic woes from worsening?

2. He doesn’t “get” Islam.
McCain touts his experience hammers Obama for his willingness to meet with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but McCain’s foreign policy aptitude is also highly questionable. He’s confused Sunnis and Shiites on multiple occasions. Understanding Islam and the Middle East is essential to our national security. Does McCain grasp them well enough to be president?

3. His “reformer” rep is questionable.
Hatchet-job hints of extramarital affair notwithstanding, the New York Times‘ Vicki Iseman story posed a valid question: does John McCain’s reputation as a reformer dedicated to reducing the influence of money on politics really correspond with the man’s own actions? Or is it just a contrived act?

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The more he opens his mouth, the clearer it becomes that John McCain’s views on global affairs are rather consistent with those of the great George W. Bush.

Much like Bush, McCain sees the world in oppositional terms - us vs. them, good vs. evil. He speaks of taking the lead “in fighting the transcendent issue of our time” - an unending, undefined crusade against “evil.”

Really, we could end this post right now. But we’ll continue.

During the Cold War, the new, central tenet of neo-conservatism emerged - that America is locked in a battle with evil. The U.S.S.R. was evil - but this hazardous way of framing any and all conflict has prevailed ever since.

Bush’s foreign policy - his refusal to think for more than five seconds about any situation or consider diplomacy, his outright dismissal of the United Nations, his increasingly aggressive nuclear posturing - is a function of this.

John McCain maintains the same outdated, epically disastrous world view, no matter how “maverick” or “independent” he fancies himself.

DON’T KID YOURSELF: George W. Bush and his aspiring successor, John McCain, share the same bellicose, inherently dangerous world views, no matter what “criticism” the latter supposedly has regarding the former’s policies.

Like many conservatives during and since the Cold War, Sen. McCain has embraced this “moral” attitude that the United States is a force defending all that is good, battling the forces of evil. As if it could possibly be that simple.

• He has morphed this into an laughably simplistic, strategic guidebook.

• He rejects negotiation and coexistence out of hand. Even if this means mass casualties, unending conflict and unstated goals.

• He confuses our enemies - Sunni Al-Qaeda with Shiite Iranian extremists - not because he’s old (well, maybe a little for that reason), but thanks to the narrow-minded ignorance that assumes evil is a single, uniform entity.

John McCain may lambast Donald Rumsfeld and nitpick Bush on foreign policy, but that’s all it is. The fundamental principles, or lack thereof, are essentially the same, and cannot be allowed to continue in such reckless fashion if our once-respected nation is to repair its relationships with the rest of the world.

In a world of ambiguity, marred by deep-rooted and rapidly-transforming threats such as terrorism, nuclear proliferation and, yes, global warming, such a dumbed-down, overly nationalistic approach will inevitably fail.

It has, and it will. Vote for this man at your peril.

The White House took exception today to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that the U.S. “overstepped its national borders in every way.”

But, as for Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s comments about Sen. Barack Obama - that his call for a troop withdrawal in Iraq should cause terrorists to root for Obama’s election as president - the White House simply says the prime minister speaks for himself.

Just your basic Monday morning in Washington.

With the White House sitting square in the middle of provocative comments flying from far corners of the world, the Bush administration was issuing its own provocative comments over the weekend in Iraq, with U.S. military authorities asserting that Iran is supplying deadly weapons being deployed against U.S. troops there.

But Putin’s comments at an international security forum in Munich over the weekend drew plenty of attention, the Chicago Tribune reports.

The Russian president claimed that the U.S. has undermined security in the world and prompted other nations to pursue new weaponry with its “almost uncontained use of military force.” Putin said that American “unilateral, illegitimate actions have not solved a single problem. They have become a hotbed of further conflicts.”

White House press secretary Tony Snow replied today:

“We certainly disagree with the characterization of the United States… acting unilaterally… In fact, the United States has been working in every way, including with Russia, to work in a multilateral fashion…”

He pointed to the six-party talks among the U.S., Japan, China, Russia, South Korea and North Korea aimed at convincing the latter to suspend its nuclear weapons program. Diplomats suggested over the weekend that they could be on the verge of a long-sought agreement.

“If you take a look at the ongoing cooperation between the United States and Russia, it continues,” Snow said. “The president has regular and quite frank conversations with President Putin.”

But George W. Bush has not spoken with Prime Minister Howard of Australia since January 9, the White House maintains - a thinly-veiled attempt to dispute claims that Bush put his friend from Sydney up to his recent criticism of Obama.

Obama, who declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination over the weekend, has called for a cap on U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and also proposes to withdraw all combat troops by March 2008.

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