Now that John McCain has locked up his party's nomination, and the press corps' attention is monotonously focused on Obama and Clinton, the Republican senator is trying to maintain his relationship with the press. While on the campaign trial, fighting against the non-existent threat of Mike Huckabee, McCain could sit with reporters for hours, or at least dozens of minutes at a time. He had the Straight Talk Express bus, after all, to keep 'em in tow. But what campaign beat reporter wants to sit around while McCain battles against an unclear Democratic opponent?

Engaging in what basically amounts to a full-time press conference for eight months seems tough. His staff is already trying to figure out a way to configure a charter airplane to allow for the informal interaction with traveling reporters that McCain prefers, rather than speaking to a gaggle of media hunched under an overhead luggage compartment. But McCain says he wants to compete nationally with whoever the Democratic nominee is, whether it's Obama or Clinton; it's hard to find the time for 80-minute chats with the press when you're trying to hop from Colorado to Ohio to Florida and get on the local news at each stop. In states like New Hampshire or South Carolina, where the primary campaign camped out for weeks, it was far easier to sit on the bus and schmooze than it will be in the helter-skelter two months after the national political conventions. [Salon]