Jeanne Cummings of Politico gives us a glance at how the DNC may try to bring down John McCain:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is already moving to redefine the presumed Republican nominee. In a fundraising appeal sent out Wednesday, Dean called McCain "a media darling" and warned that "from Iraq to health care, Social Security to special interest tax cuts to ethics, he's promising nothing more than a third Bush term."

The tough part for Democrats will be making any criticism stick. Republican rival Mitt Romney tried to no avail. The sharp, eleventh-hour assault launched by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and a cadre of high-profile conservatives also failed to derail his candidacy.

Doug Schoen, a former adviser to President Clinton, says the Democrats must act quickly. "The trick is to get him on the flip-flops and not let him get back to the center where he can be a real force," he said.

The appeal of a flip-flop assault is that it could undermine McCain's reputation for taking tough stands and sticking with them no matter how the political wind blows.

With a McCain candidacy, the Democrats have been put in a position not seen since the "teflon" days of Ronald Reagan. The media meme on George H.W. Bush--involving one slightly misleading headline about a grocery store scanner--helped paint the senior Bush as an aloof and effete blue blood. Bob Dole's age became a constant media matter in 1996, and the contentious relationship between the press and the current administration needn't be broached here.

If Senator Obama can win his party's nomination, it will leave the media with a choice. We've already seen the media critique Obama's "messianic" following, and John McCain will no doubt get the Bob Dole treatment at the age of 70.

A McCain/Obama contest could prove to be a referendum on the mainstream media. The narrative they write can dictate the way the public perceives both nominees, and would undoubtedly alter a race between two candidates fighting for the center of American politics.