On the eve of John McCain's speech to the RNC tonight, the New York Times has an article about how the Arizona senator has gone on the attack against the news media, who at one time he openly courted. For example, he threw a birthday party for himself at the 2004 RNC, which was attended by a number of members of the media elite.

But I don't care about how McCain treated the news media then compared to what he does now (well, I do, but not for the purposes of this post). What I really miss is the McCain that could have fit in well on stage at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater.

When you see the uptight McCain on stage tonight, it's hard to believe that he's been a guest on The Daily Show more often than anyone else, and when he used to go on the show as a mere senator and not the Republican presidential nominee, he'd roll with Jon Stewart's punches as well as anyone. After the jump is video of an appearance in 2002, where he comes out and immediately has his own comment on the previous silly story.