Well so far both the Right and the Left in the blogosphere are not too impressed by the New York Times story. John McCain confidante Mark Salter in an interview with The Page points out the key problem with the Times story: it boils down to two unnamed aides concerned about a lady lobbyist’s proximity to McCain. The McCain rapid response on this, complete with Bob Bennett pushback, has been rather impressive in the less than half a day this story has been out. As a result, the story hit together with the McCain’s denial and with the implication that the Times got buffaloed into running the story by TNR. The morning news shows seem to have picked up on the “Isn’t this a smear?” framing the McCain team has presented. The real test for McCain is whether he keeps his cool when the media swarm confronts him later today.