The media can't rough him up too badly yet, and he probably knows it. They still need McCain to be able to win the GOP primary in 2008 so us big dumb yahoos will sit at home banging our Bibles instead of voting in Novermber '08, thus guaranteeing an easy Hillary win. And that means they can't go all out after him and burn him to the ground this early in the game, two years ahead of the primaries.
All McCain will get now is a few warning shots, though the media may lay some very preliminary groundwork fior the post-nomination "McCain is a raving lunatic" campaign that they'll eventually use to torpedo him if he wins the GOP nomination.
Agree with your analysis, hope Pubbies aren't that stupid.