McCain: The Bush 'tightrope'
Posted: Monday, March 24, 2008 9:36 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
2008, 2008 McCain
The Washington Post looks at the "tightrope" McCain is walking in regards to Pres. Bush. "Throughout a week-long trip that took him to more than a dozen meetings with leaders in five countries, McCain walked a fine line on Iraq and other issues as the all-but-certain Republican nominee confronted perhaps the central dilemma of his presidential campaign -- the question of what role Bush and the legacy of the past seven years will play in his campaign for the White House."
More: "At home, the answer may determine how well McCain succeeds in keeping his Republican base happy while also attracting the independents and Democrats he will need to win in November. And, win or lose, it will shape his image abroad, where a debate is already raging over whether a McCain presidency would be a de facto third term for the embattled incumbent."
NYT's Harwood has some details of what McCain's spring is going to look like. "The visible part of Mr. Davis’s plan involves laying a sturdier foundation for Mr. McCain’s positive, but relatively shallow, public image. It starts in earnest on March 31 with a “Service for America” tour, intended to link the senator’s biography with his values and policy stances. Along the way, it will underscore life events that occurred in battleground states -- like Virginia, where Mr. McCain attended high school, and Florida, where he trained as a Navy pilot. He will address the dominant domestic issue with events in April promoting his economic agenda.
“Drawing attention amid the Clinton-Obama battle will not be easy. Mr. Davis counts on regional news media coverage from Mr. McCain’s travels and on the instinct for the spotlight of “the best earned-media candidate in history.”
“The campaign plans cable television advertising, but only a little, because Mr. McCain is demonstrably not the best candidate in history at raising money. The $12 million he collected in February was less than a quarter of the $55 million for Mr. Obama, of Illinois. To close that gap, the campaign has scheduled a dozen fund-raising events for the next week alone and promises a similar pace throughout the spring."
More: "Another priority is to bolster Mr. McCain’s campaign infrastructure, which has been skeletal since his 2007 fund-raising collapsed. His early triumph in the nominating process allowed him to install operatives at the Republican National Committee, who in tandem with White House political aides can help with strategic planning.
“Yet Mr. McCain still does not have a pollster, and his ad maker, Mark McKinnon, has said he will not work against Mr. Obama’s bid to become the first black president. Other aides expect Mr. McKinnon to overcome his reluctance, but some Republicans outside the campaign worry about the pace of organizational progress."
“The senator from Arizona has spent $58.4 million on his Republican primary effort. Those who have committed to public financing can spend no more than $54 million on their primary bid. McCain's lawyers contend that the spending cap no longer applies.” More: “But David Mason, chairman of the commission, wrote to McCain's campaign last month to alert him that the commission had not yet granted that withdrawal request, and that the commission would first have to vote on the matter. One snag is that the commission has four vacancies and therefore lacks a quorum to consider the matter.”
The AP Sunday took a look back at McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five. “Sen. John McCain's ethics entanglement with a wealthy banker ultimately convicted of swindling investors was such a disturbing, formative experience in his political career that he compares the scandal in some ways to the five years he was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
“ ‘I faced in Vietnam, at times, very real threats to life and limb,’ McCain told The Associated Press. ‘But while my sense of honor was tested in prison, it was not questioned. During the Keating inquiry, it was, and I regretted that very much.’”
USA Today also does an examination of the number of lobbyists helping McCain that have ties to the telecom industry which had a lot of business with McCain in his days leading the Commerce Committee. "McCain has netted about $765,000 in political donations from those telecom lobbyists, their spouses, colleagues at their firms and their telecom clients during the past decade, a USA Today analysis of campaign-finance records shows.
“It's unclear how much more money those lobbyists have raised for McCain. Eighteen of them are listed by the campaign as "bundlers," which are major fundraisers. McCain doesn't disclose how much each bundler has raised -- unlike Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, who categorize their bundlers by the amount they raise. For example, Clinton's "Hillraisers" have brought in more than $100,000 each."
Will conservative talk radio pick up on this story today or stick with Rev. Wright? The NYT goes through the two instances in McCain's career where he almost left the GOP. "What Mr. McCain almost never mentions are two extraordinary moments in his political past that are at odds with the candidate of the present: His discussions in 2001 with Democrats about leaving the Republican Party, and his conversations in 2004 with Senator John Kerry about becoming Mr. Kerry’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.
“There are wildly divergent versions of both episodes, depending on whether Democrats or Mr. McCain and his advisers are telling the story. The Democrats, including Mr. Kerry, say that not only did Mr. McCain express interest but that it was his camp that initially reached out to them. Mr. McCain and his aides counter that in both cases the Democrats were the suitors and Mr. McCain the unwilling bride.
“Either way, the episodes shed light on a bitter period in Mr. McCain’s life after the 2000 presidential election, when he was, at least in policy terms, drifting away from his own party. They also offer a glimpse into his psychological makeup and the difficulties in putting a label on his political ideology over many years in the Senate."
Get to know e-Bay CEO Meg Whitman, who may be using her role as nat'l co-chair of McCain's campaign to size up a CA GOV run in 2010. "The McCain-Whitman alliance could be beneficial to both of them. By the end of this experience ... she'll have a real good idea of what she'd have to go through herself to win an election in a state the size of California," said Republican strategist Rob Stutzman, a former California campaign advisor to Romney. Republican consultant Don Sipple said Whitman would get to know political donors "that she will need to tap if she was to pursue a political career of her own."
“Whitman's fundraising skills and connections in Silicon Valley are an obvious asset to McCain, who raised $11 million in February -- compared with the combined $90 million taken in by his Democratic opponents. McCain's team is also trying to broaden his appeal among professional women as well as bolster his economic credentials. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina was recently named to lead the Republican National Committee's political and fundraising efforts for the 2008 campaign."
More: "Little is known about Whitman's political views; until recently she was registered as an independent. She grew up in a Republican family on Long Island. But when she moved from New York to California in 1980, she said, ‘I had voted Republican most of the time, but I wasn't entirely sure -- and I thought 'You know what, let's just do decline-to-state.'
“She wasn't politically active until Romney called in late 2006, she said. She met McCain when he spoke to a group of EBay users she had accompanied to Washington to talk about small-business issues. The Arizona senator called Whitman seeking her help after Romney suspended his campaign. Whitman lines up with McCain on many issues -- although she said she doesn't agree with his call for overturning the abortion rights decision Roe vs. Wade."
The story was broken back in December by our friends at Cailfornia Target Book, who wrote then, "Sources say that MEG WHITMAN, the President and CEO of eBay and a Republican, was in Sacramento recently to have discussions on a possible race for governor in 2010. Whitman, 51, whose worth is estimated at $1.4 billion, also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Procter & Gamble and Dream Works Animation.
"She attended Princeton University as an undergraduate and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is married to Dr. Griffith R. Harsh IV, a prominent neurosurgeon. They have two children. Whitman has made several political contributions in the past, including Orrin Hatch, Charles Pickering and George Allen. She is a supporter of former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney for President and is serving on his national finance team."
The DNC is unveiling a new web site today called "McCain vs. McCain." From the DNC release: "McCain will appear in a series of debates to be broadcast on www.mccaindebates.com. The one candidate in this debate who could beat John McCain, is John McCain himself. As the two McCains square off, the American people will have the opportunity to hear the old McCain and the new McCain for themselves." More: "The McCain vs. McCain debates will be held over the coming weeks, with the first debate to be held today on Iraq."
