John McCain's feud with the New York Times is sometimes blamed on the newspaper's humiliating demand for a rewrite of an op-ed piece he had written or the February scoop on the Republican nominee's relationship with a female lobbyist. One could attribute the campaign's petty digs at the newspaper's business woes to the candidate's Scots-Irish irascibility or to the cannier calculation by McCain's new aides that an attack on the liberal media is a reliable way to stimulate an otherwise lethargic base. But there's one point the pundits have missed: McCain's grumbling morning reading of the Times reveals more about his age than any other characteristic.

The Gray Lady no longer sets the media agenda as it did—witness the lack of follow-up to the newspaper's stories on McCain's cosiness with that lobbyist, or the deafening silence with which its story on corrupt pundits was met. If McCain was a politician of the modern era, he'd be more concerned with the photo selection on the Drudge Report. As it is, the 71-year-old Republican nominee resembles nothing more closely than a grumpy retiree who loves to complain about the local newspaper, but cannot bring himself to cancel his subscription. The Times should be gentler with McCain: he represents the troubled newspaper's core demographic.

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