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Viewing Category: McCain
McCain's Age: Is It a Fair Issue?Some of Sen. John McCain's strongest supporters are spending much of their time raising money for their pal, giving speeches for him, even accompanying the candidate on the campaign trail.Permalink [Category: McCain]After all, the volunteers — many of them McCain classmates from the U.S. Naval Academy — have plenty of time on their hands. Almost all of them have been retired for years. At an age when most Americans have taken up hobbies or mall walking, the 71-year-old presumptive GOP presidential nominee is hoping to become the nation's oldest newly elected president. If elected, McCain would be 76 at the end of his first term.
If there is any doubt that McCain's age is going to be an issue, just listen to the late night monologues. "John McCain seems reinvigorated. He has a new campaign slogan: 'He'll lead you into the 21st century.' I like it better than the old slogan, which was 'He'll lead you into assisted living,'" riffed David Letterman, who likes to refer to McCain as the candidate who looks like "the old guy at the barber shop," "a Wal-Mart greeter" or "the guy at the supermarket who is confused by the automatic doors."
McCain Grows Testy on Question About ’04 and Kerry PartnershipNEW ORLEANS — Senator John McCain fielded a question at a public forum on Friday morning in Atlanta that he said he had never been asked before. Because Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, had approached him about being his running mate for the White House in 2004, would Mr. McCain now return the favor?Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, who has long been distrusted by conservatives as a Democratic sympathizer, quickly said no he would not — and just as quickly said he had never considered sharing the ticket with Mr. Kerry, a friend.
“He is, as he describes himself, a liberal Democrat,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Kerry, adding that he meant no offense by the term. “I am a conservative Republican. So when I was approached, when we had that conversation back in 2004, that’s why I never even considered such a thing.”
Permalink [Category: McCain]
On the Campaign Trail, Few Mentions of McCain’s Bout With MelanomaAlong with his signature bright white hair, the most striking aspects of Senator John McCain’s physical appearance are his puffy left cheek and the scar that runs down the back of his neck.Mr. McCain with his wife after having a melanoma removed from his nose in 2002. It was one of four he has had.
The marks are cosmetic reminders of the melanoma surgery he underwent in August 2000. Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, sometimes tells audiences that he has “more scars than Frankenstein.”The operation was performed mainly to determine whether the melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, had spread from his left temple to a key lymph node in his neck; a preliminary pathology test at the time showed that it had not.
Permalink [Category: McCain]
McCain grabs GOP bid, faces divided partySen. John McCain, having survived the Republican primaries, now needs to bind a fractured Republican Party as he looks to the presidential election this fall.Permalink [Category: McCain]But the manner of his victory — he clinched his party's nomination by outlasting flawed opponents rather than storming to victory over them — has left him with the tasks of repairing fissures among Republicans and overcoming the headwind of an unpopular president from his party.
And he will have to do that while facing the historic candidacy of either a woman or a black man as his Democratic opponent.
Clinton Wins in Texas and Ohio; McCain Is In as G.O.P. ChoiceSenator Hillary Rodham Clinton defeated Senator Barack Obama in the Ohio and Texas primaries on Tuesday, ending a string of defeats and allowing her to soldier on in a Democratic presidential nomination race that now seems unlikely to end any time soon.Mrs. Clinton also won Rhode Island, while Mr. Obama won in Vermont. But the results mean that Mrs. Clinton won the two states she most needed to keep her candidacy alive.
In an interview on CNN Wednesday morning, Mrs. Clinton said she was not deterred by Mr. Obama’s continued lead in elected delegate support, and argued that she would be the stronger candidate in a general election against the now-assured Republican candidate, Senator John McCain. “What’s important is that this campaign has turned a corner,” she said.
Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton, McCain]
McCain Clinches Race as Foe ConcedesSenator John McCain, a one-time insurgent whose campaign was all but dead seven months ago, locked up the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday night after he defeated former Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Texas and Ohio Republican primary and Mr. Huckabee conceded the race to Mr. McCain.Permalink [Category: McCain]Although Mr. McCain had been far ahead in the delegate count and been bestowed with the unofficial title of “likely Republican nominee” since his string of victories on Feb. 5, Tuesday’s results put him within reach of the 1,191 delegates he needs for the nomination. Mr. McCain also won the Vermont and Rhode Island primaries.
“I am very grateful and pleased to note that tonight, my friends, we have won enough delegates to claim with confidence, humility and a great sense of responsibility that I will be the Republican nominee for president of the United States,” Mr. McCain said. He said this was “an accomplishment that once seemed to more than a few doubters unlikely.”
McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him OutWASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.
Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.
Permalink [Category: McCain]
John McCain May Be Old, but He's Still the White GuyLiberal smarties and sophisticates are having fun mocking John McCain , but assuming he gets the nomination, he will a formidable candidate. He may look like a grumpy old man -- specifically, as my friend Kathleen Geier joked, the grumpy old man who yells at kids to get off his lawn -- or the nutty old uncle who rags on everyone at Thanksgiving before passing out in front of the football game. But that's another way of saying McCain is a familiar, indeed family, character. It does not require an imaginative stretch to get John McCain. How many voters know someone like Barack Obama?Permalink [Category: Gender, McCain, Race]McCain is white, male, patriarchal, a war hero with decades in the Senate. So what if he's old? In politics old can be good ( for men), especially to the older voters -- older white voters -- who dominate the polls. Besides, McCain's not so old that he couldn't get himself a much younger trophy wife, and even if Cindy McCain looks brittle and unhappy and like she hasn't eaten in a decade, she is always there by his side, a visual reminder of his manly prowess. McCain is brash and sly and seemingly unguarded, unlike the famously self-protective Hillary Clinton, and he loves to schmooze with reporters, who adore him and like most of the rest of America, refuse to see how conservative he is. It's like they're saying, Oh go on, Uncle John! you're just saying you love Sam Alito to get me riled up!
A Host Disparages Obama, and McCain Quickly ApologizesCINCINNATI — Senator John McCain apologized Tuesday after a conservative radio host who helped introduce him before a rally used Senator Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, three times, while disparaging him.Permalink [Category: Dirty Tricks, McCain, Media, Obama]Bill Cunningham, who is host of “The Big Show with Bill Cunningham,” a local program here that is also syndicated nationally, was one of several people who revved up the crowd before Mr. McCain’s appearance at a theater here.
Mr. Cunningham lambasted the national news media, drawing cheers from the audience, as being soft in their coverage of Mr. Obama compared with the Republican presidential candidates, declaring they should “peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama.”
Liberal Advocacy Groups Take Aim at McCainA coalition of liberal advocacy groups pledged yesterday to mount a $20 million campaign aimed at Sen. John McCain and other Republicans, the latest sign that both parties have shifted their focus to the general election even before their nomination contests are settled.Permalink [Category: Liberals, McCain]Former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards has yet to endorse Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, but in announcing the new effort to link McCain to the war in Iraq and to the faltering economy, he made it clear that he is looking beyond his party's nomination fight.
"We want to make sure the American people know they have a very clear choice in this election," he said. "It's between ending the Iraq war and focusing on the economic needs of our country, and Senator McCain, the Republican nominee who wants to continue the war and continue the incredibly failed policies of George Bush."
New York Times vs.McCainShortly after sundown on Wednesday night, the New York Times posted on its website a long story about John McCain, a female lobbyist, and the relationship--professional and perhaps personal--between the two. By midday Friday, executive editor Bill Keller had taken to the paper's website to offer a defense that, according to Time magazine's Blake Dvorak, represented "surrender from the editor." Dvorak concluded: "Unless the Times has further evidence of infidelity, this is a closed case."Permalink [Category: McCain, Media]The story first surfaced publicly in late December, when the Drudge Report noted efforts by the McCain campaign to squelch a New York Times article raising allegations about favorable treatment for a "female lobbyist." Drudge also reported a rift between the reporters on the story, who were pushing for publication, and their editors, who counseled caution. McCain, who had already hired Washington power lawyer Bob Bennett, denied the allegations at a press conference on December 20, 2007. The story seemed to disappear as quickly as it had arisen.
McCain’s Age May Figure in Choice of a Running MateWhen it comes to senators hoping to make history with their presidential bids, Hillary Rodham Clinton (who would be the first woman to be president) and Barack Obama (who would be the first black president) are not the only ones. John McCain, 71, is hoping to become the oldest candidate ever elected to a first term in the White House.The quest to win the presidency at an age when he would be too old to be a commercial airline pilot or even a judge in some states has already led Mr. McCain to adopt a more grueling campaign schedule, and a more vigorous style, than several of his younger rivals. Now that Mr. McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee, political analysts say, his age will most likely factor into his selection of a running mate.
Some suggested Mr. McCain might want to tap a younger running mate to balance the ticket, particularly if he were to face a young opponent like Mr. Obama, 46. Others said his age would simply heighten his need to choose somebody whom voters would feel comfortable with as president should anything happen to him. (Not to be morbid, but eight vice presidents have succeeded presidents who died in office.)
Permalink [Category: McCain, Vice President]
Rough Week Continues for McCainJust when John McCain may have been breathing a sigh of relief, his campaign woke up to a new round of negative headlines -- this time, suggesting that in defending himself against The New York Times this week, he had misrepresented some facts.Permalink [Category: McCain]In an effort to refute the Times story implying the senator had an inappropriate relationship with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, McCain's campaign stated unequivocally on Thursday that he had never held a meeting with Iseman and her client, broadcaster Lowell Paxson, about letters he sent to the Federal Communications Commission on Paxson's behalf in 1999.
But it turns out, McCain did sit down with the two of them, and he himself admitted to the meeting in a 2002 deposition.
Will He Stay or Will He Go?The last time a senior Republican senator secured his party’s presidential nomination it wasn’t long before he concluded it would be better to become an ex-senator for the White House stretch run.Permalink [Category: McCain]Bob Dole walked out of the Senate chamber and away from his job as majority leader in June 1996, encouraged by many advisers and Republican colleagues to cut his ties to an institution that was severely complicating his race and consuming time that could otherwise be spent campaigning.
The Dole precedent has raised some suggestions that Senator John McCain might do the same and give up his Senate seat to devote full-time to his presidential bid, avoiding the political potholes Senate Democrats are certain to place in his way in the coming months.
How Right Is McCain?John McCain will be the Republican Party's presidential candidate in November. Most Republicans certainly know who John McCain is, but there still seems to be a question as to just what he is. President Bush said last week that there was "no doubt in my mind he is a true conservative." But is he a Ronald Reagan conservative, or more like a Bob Dole moderate? Or is he like Dwight Eisenhower, who claimed in the 1952 nomination battle that he was "just as conservative" as his opponent, Sen. Robert Taft?Permalink [Category: Conservatives, McCain]Mr. McCain's lifetime American Conservative Union rating is 82, compared with conservative Sen. Sam Brownback's 94, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's 90, and liberal Sen. Olympia Snowe's 50. So he is much more conservative than liberal; indeed Americans for Tax Reform rates him at 83, compared with Hillary Clinton's 7 and Barack Obama's 8.
We know he has a tough streak, saying that when he looked into Russian president Vladimir Putin's eyes he "saw three letters: a K, a G and a B," and we know he has a temper. When Mitt Romney said to McCain in one of their debates, "Don't turn the pharmaceutical companies into the big bad guys," Mr. McCain replied, "Well, they are." In the words of Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mr. McCain "is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
McCain Camp Relieved by Its Reaction to AccusationsIn less than 24 hours the McCain campaign traveled the long distance from anger and anxiety to calm and confidence. It went from desperate defense to aggressive offense.Permalink [Category: McCain]In the assessment of McCain communication director Jill Hazelbaker, The New York Times story suggesting that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had an "improper relationship" with a female lobbyist in 1999 was its first major crisis and she felt it had met the challenge.
Interviews with four McCain senior advisers paint a picture of a staff stunned by the news that the Times article would appear Wednesday night. The McCain campaign has known for months that the Times was preparing such a story, but its publication had been delayed. Several staffers said they had been lulled by the absence of recent inquiries from the newspaper or from other journalists into believing that it would not run.
With Victory in Wisconsin, McCain Is Talking Like a Nominee
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 19 -- A triumphant Sen. John McCain claimed the Republican presidential nomination as his own Tuesday night after easily winning the Wisconsin primary, for the first time acknowledging his success at besting a crowded, fractured field of GOP hopefuls.Permalink [Category: McCain]McCain slogged through 18 inches of snow in 3-degree Wisconsin weather in the morning. But as the votes were being counted, the senator from Arizona was already celebrating in Ohio his victory over former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Ohio will join Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island in holding primaries in two weeks.
"With confidence and humility . . . I will be our party's nominee for president of the United States," McCain declared to his supporters, promising to "wage a campaign with determination, passion and the right ideas for strengthening our country."
He immediately turned his fire on Democrats, and particularly Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), dismissing what he said was an "eloquent but empty call for change that promises no more than a holiday from history and a return to the false promises and failed policies of a tired philosophy that trusts in government more than people."
A Strong Endorsement for McCain From a Former PresidentHOUSTON — When former President George Bush stood beside Senator John McCain here on Monday and gave him a Presidents’ Day endorsement, it was just the latest chapter in the sometimes-tangled saga of the Bush and the McCain dynasties.In World War II, Mr. Bush was serving under Mr. McCain’s grandfather, Adm. John S. McCain, in the Pacific when he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for finishing a bombing run even after his airplane was hit; he bailed out at sea only after he had finished. Years later, Mr. Bush commissioned the guided missile destroyer John S. McCain, named for Mr. McCain’s grandfather and father, another admiral in the Navy.
If Mr. McCain has sometimes seemed to have a complicated relationship with Mr. Bush’s son President George W. Bush, he has always spoken warmly of the first President Bush — calling him last summer “maybe the nicest man that ever sat in the Oval Office.”
Permalink [Category: Bush, Endorsements, McCain]
Pro-life groups choose McCainPro-lifers are the first part of the conservative base to rally around Sen. John McCain, overcoming past fights to embrace him as strong on their core issue and a clear choice over the two Democrats he could face.Permalink [Category: McCain, Reproductive Rights]"He is pro-life in his heart of hearts, in my opinion," said Rep. Christopher H. Smith, New Jersey Republican and a pro-life movement leader, who said Mr. McCain's commitment stretches back across decades of votes in the House and Senate.
Though the Arizona senator and all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee doesn't detail his voting record on the campaign trail, an examination reveals a striking opposition to abortion in most of the major fights such as partial-birth abortion down to the smallest of skirmishes, even when he was in a distinct minority.
McCain Facing Delicate Choice: A Role for BushWASHINGTON — Senator John McCain’s campaign advisers will ask the White House to deploy President Bush for major Republican fund-raising, but they do not want the president to appear too often at his side, top aides to Mr. McCain said Sunday.Permalink [Category: George Bush, McCain]After a weekend of strategy meetings at Mr. McCain’s Arizona ranch — in a sense, the first Sedona summit of the Republican Party’s new leadership — the advisers said that much remains undecided about coordinating the campaign with the White House and the party apparatus until Mr. McCain wins enough delegates to be the official nominee.
But even as the consensus was that Mr. McCain needed to “stand in the sun” on his own, as one adviser put it, without the large shadow cast by Mr. Bush, left unsaid was the difficult calculus the McCain campaign faces: Using Mr. Bush enough to try to make the tough sell of Mr. McCain to conservatives but not so much that he will drive away the independents and some moderate Democrats that Mr. McCain is counting on in November.
A Smiling McCain, Learning to Rein Himself InSenator John McCain was sitting in the front of his fancy-pants front-runner’s plane, trying to get comfortable. He fidgeted, occasionally lapsing into un-McCainlike blandness: “There is a process in place that will formalize the methodology,” he said in describing how his free-form campaign style will assume the discipline expected of a probable Republican standard-bearer.Permalink [Category: McCain]The position is unnatural to Mr. McCain, who has typically floundered when not playing the insurgent role. But now he is in the midst of an at-times awkward transition — from being one of the most disruptive figures in his party to someone playing it safer, not to mention trying to make nice with Republicans he clearly despises and who feel similarly about him.
“I’m trying to unify the party,” he says a lot these days, as if reminding himself. He is trying to remain “Johnny B. Goode” (the song blares over a loudspeaker at some McCain rallies), giving relatively cautious answers and trying to rein in his pugnacity, if not his wisecracks.
Warring on McCain, Limbaugh Sees No ReconciliationRush Limbaugh took his show on the road this week, forsaking his main broadcast studio in Palm Beach, Fla., for one in Midtown Manhattan. But the change of scenery did nothing to dampen the Republican-on-Republican smackdown he has been waging from afar against Senator John McCain, the party’s likely presidential nominee, whom Mr. Limbaugh considers too moderate.As he opened his radio program Wednesday, Mr. Limbaugh lobbed yet another grenade.
“I would like today to announce a tentative decision — I’m still thinking about it — to endorse Barack Obama,” he said, his head cocked slightly toward his 18-karat-gold-plated microphone, his hands spread wide like the wings of his sleek G4 jet.
Permalink [Category: Conservatives, McCain, Media]
McCain Overstates His Criticisms Of RumsfeldWhile campaigning in Fort Myers, Fla., on Jan. 26, he told a crowd: "In the conflict that we're in, I'm the only one that said we have to abandon the Rumsfeld strategy -- and Rumsfeld -- and adopt a new strategy." Four days later during a debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., aired on CNN, McCain said, "I'm the only one that said that Rumsfeld had to go."Permalink [Category: Iraq, McCain]A McCain spokesman acknowledged this week that that was not correct. "He did not call for his resignation," said the campaign's Brian Rogers. "He always said that's the president's prerogative." Asked specifically about the senator's statements in Florida and California, Rogers said, "I think he's really just pointing out that he's the only one who really called out the Rumsfeld strategy, and that is certainly true again and again."
George H.W. Bush to Endorse McCainFormer President George H.W. Bush will endorse Sen. John McCain for president on Monday in Houston, Texas, sources tell ABC News.The endorsement from the former president is expected to increase pressure on former Ark. Gov. Mike Huckabee to end his bid for the GOP nomination.
While McCain is comfortably ahead of Huckabee in the race for delegates, Huckabee's presence in the race and ability to score a large chunk of the vote among social conservatives has weakened McCain's standing by fueling stories about conservative dissatisfaction with the senator who has bucked party orthodoxy in the past on issues like immigration, President Bush's tax cuts, and campaign finance regulation.
Permalink [Category: Endorsements, McCain]
Romney Endorses Former Rival McCainFormer Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney gave a big, wet kiss on Valentine's Day to his former rival, Sen. John McCain, endorsing him in Boston and calling him "a true American hero."Permalink [Category: Endorsements, McCain, Romney]With McCain standing next to him, Romney said he was urging his 280 delegates to support the Arizona senator at the Republican convention in September.
"This is a man who has served and suffered for his country," Romney said. "Our Democratic opponents are very skilled at striking heroic poses," he said, calling McCain "the real thing."
McCain Sweeps Potomac PrimarySen. John McCain defeated former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in the Virginia Republican primary today, and he also won with comfortable margins in Maryland and the District in the region's first-ever Potomac Primary.Permalink [Category: McCain]With more than 90 percent of the vote counted in Virginia, McCain was ahead 50 percent to 41 percent. In the District, with about half of the precincts reporting, McCain led 67 percent to 17 percent.
Detailed results were not yet available in Maryland, where polls didn't close until 9:30 p.m. due to inclement weather. Early network exit polls gave McCain nearly a two-to-one margin over Huckabee in Maryland.
McCain opts out on fundsRICHMOND — Sen. John McCain will not accept public campaign financing for the primary election — freeing him from spending limits through September and giving him a chance to compete with his Democratic opponent.Permalink [Category: McCain, Money]The Arizona senator, who's on pace to effectively lock down the Republican nomination in today"s Potomac primaries, also picked up some high-profile endorsements yesterday.
Both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic contenders, already have opted out of the public financing system, and Mr. McCain would have been at a severe disadvantage if he had been bound by the roughly $50 million overall spending cap and the state-by-state limits.
McCain and the Talk-Show HostsWhat a kerfuffle! Half a dozen talk-radio hosts whose major talent is that, like hairdressers, they can talk all day long to one client after another as they snip, have decided that the presumptive Republican nominee does not hew sufficiently close to their gospel.Permalink [Category: McCain, Media]As anyone who has listened to them knows, the depth of their thought is truly Oprah-like. And if a great institution of the left can weigh-in as it does in the choice of a nominee, why not its fraternal twins on the right? It doesn't matter that Mitt Romney, suddenly their Reagan, became a conservative in a flash of light sometime last year, or that their other champion, a populist theocrat, is in many ways as conservative as Vladimir Lenin. The task is to stop the devil McCain.
As a mere print person whose words are not electrified and shot through walls, automobiles, pine trees, and brains, I realize that what I write in the bloody ink of a dying industry may be irrelevant. But from my antiquated perspective, something is very wrong.
If McCain is nominee, Bush will help campaignWASHINGTON -- President Bush pledged Sunday to assist Sen. John McCain's campaign for the presidency assuming he wins the Republican Party nomination -- but acknowledged that the Arizona senator has "got some convincing to do" among the party's conservatives.Permalink [Category: George Bush, McCain]In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" at his retreat at Camp David, Md., Bush was careful to note that two Republicans are still competing for the nomination, and he did not express a preference.
But Bush made clear that he was willing to set aside the tensions he has had with McCain in the past, and he praised the front-runner as "a true conservative."
Obama Sweeps, Huckabee Hangs OnPundits may well marvel that, for once, participants in Tuesday's D.C., Maryland and Virginia Democratic Potomac Primaries will be casting votes that "actually matter," but yesterday's results among Republicans show that even if a party's nomination is all sewn up, votes can still matter quite a lot. John McCain's losses in Kansas and Louisiana — and his narrow win in Washington state — suggest that, at the very least, the Republican party will not be able to begin preparing for the general election as soon as leaders would like. At worst, Mike Huckabee's insistence on staying in the race undermines McCain's precarious status as a consensus conservative candidate. The longer that anyone-but-McCain voters have an option in the primary voting booth, the less likely they will be to turn out to vote in the general at all.Huckabee has little chance of actually winning the nomination. He would have to win each one of the next primary contests with better than 50% of the vote just to keep McCain short of the 1,191 delegates needed to nab the GOP nod. And even then, it is unlikely that a brokered convention would work out in his favor. Remember, the only Republican whom traditional conservative leaders distrust more than McCain is Mike Huckabee. (This distrust might stem from Huckabee's independence from traditional conservative organizations; the Club for Growth's opprobrium means little to his loose coalition of homeschoolers, economic populists, evangelicals and socially moderate, young Christians.) Huckabee's best hope — as he admitted in a speech on Saturday — is for divine intervention: "I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out...Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too." Unfortunately, miracles are not yet an approved nomination vehicle. (This might change should, for instance, Huckabee accept the consolation prize of party chair.)
Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, Obama]
TIME Poll: Clinton More Beatable than ObamaThough the real election is nine months away, Sen. Barack Obama would fare slightly better than Sen. Hillary Clinton in a head to head match-up with Sen. John McCain if the general election were held today, a new TIME poll reveals. Obama captured 48% of the vote in the theoretical match-up against McCain's 41%, the TIME poll reported, while Clinton and McCain would deadlock at 46% of the vote each. Put another way, McCain looks at the moment to have a narrowly better chance of beating the New York Senator than he does the relative newcomer from Illinois.The difference, says Mark Schulman, CEO of Abt SRBI, which conducted the poll for TIME, is that "independents tilt toward McCain when he is matched up against Clinton But they tilt toward Obama when he is matched up against the Illinois Senator." Independents, added Schulman, "are a key battleground."
Permalink [Category: Hillary Clinton, McCain, Obama, Polls]
Activists refusing to back McCainEditor's comment: Why not headline that 70% of activists WILL vote for McCain? Peter Bakke
About 30 percent of conservative activists will stay home or vote for somebody else if Sen. John McCain of Arizona is the Republican presidential nominee, Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio said yesterday.Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain]The straw poll of activists at the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference showed resistance to Mr. McCain remains strong among conservatives and did not change much with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's suspension of his campaign Thursday.
Before Mr. Romney dropped out, 14 percent said they would not vote, 22 percent said they would vote for someone else and 62 percent said they would back Mr. McCain. After the Romney announcement, 10 percent said they would not vote, 19 percent said they would vote for someone else and 70 percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain.
Coronation on hold: McCain loses 2Just days after being anointed the all-but-certain Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain failed his first big test, losing Kansas' caucuses and Louisiana's primaries yesterday to Mike Huckabee.Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain]It is almost mathematically impossible for Mr. Huckabee to win enough delegates to claim the Republican nomination outright, and Mr. McCain is still almost certain to win eventually. But yesterday's results suggest conservative voters are still looking to register their anti-McCain sentiment.
Huckabee Wins Kansas, La.; McCain Projected to Take Narrow Victory in WashingtonIn the Republican race, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee was the vehicle for a conservative rebuke of the idea that his rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), had sewn up the nomination.Permalink [Category: Huckabee, McCain]With all Kansas precincts reporting, Huckabee won 60 percent of the vote, well ahead of McCain's 24 percent and Texas congressman Ron Paul's 11 percent. In Louisiana, Huckabee barely edged McCain for a second win, while in the Washington caucuses, the Associated Press declared McCain the winner with only a 200 vote margin.
"We both made our case, and ours seemed to sell pretty well," Huckabee told reporters last night. "While people in Washington and insiders continue to maybe gravitate to the senator's campaign, people across America are gravitating to our campaign and realizing there is a choice."
Gloves off: The Dem plan to hit McCainWith John McCain poised to win the Republican nomination, Democrats are already gathering ammunition to use against him in the general election. In more than a few instances, the best fodder has been provided by the candidate himself.Permalink [Category: McCain]A case in point: As the economy was rising late last year as a major issue for voters, McCain in New Hampshire delivered this grenade, with its pin still in it: "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," he said. "I've got Greenspan's book."
Those are not the only words that will come back to haunt him in November.
As Romney Exits, McCain Seeks UnityWASHINGTON — Senator John McCain all but captured the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday after Mitt Romney withdrew from the race, saying the war in Iraq and the terrorist threat made it imperative that the party unite.Permalink [Category: McCain, Romney]VideoMore Video » In a dramatic announcement before a convention of stunned and largely unhappy conservatives, Mr. Romney said that he wanted to fight on but that taking his campaign all the way to the Republican convention in September would delay a national campaign against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton or Senator Barack Obama, the two remaining Democratic contenders. Mr. Romney described both as weak on national security.
The Right Is Wrong on McCainThere's an old Groucho Marx riff in which he launches a new career as a stick-up artist -- while worrying that his native cowardice may not induce the requisite fear among his victims. Sure enough, after a little time in a dark alley he springs out to confront his first victim, points his gun to his own head and says, "Take one step closer and I'll kill myself."Permalink [Category: Conservatives, McCain]Such is the posture today among pundits on the far right of the Republican Party as Sen. John McCain moves closer to receiving his party's nomination. Consider the destructive implications of their pledge to work against Mr. McCain's nomination and even -- in the event he is nominated -- not to vote in the general election. Start with where it would leave our country -- presumably under the leadership of either Democrat candidate -- in the two domains where we will face critical challenges in the years ahead: our national security and the threat of an economic meltdown.
Many conservatives still not soldRepublicans yesterday showed they remain deeply divided as John McCain's appeal to several thousand conservative activists failed to bring a desperately needed unity to his party.Permalink [Category: Conservatives, McCain]The skeptics tried hard to smile on the senator from Arizona as their all-but-certain presidential standard-bearer, but for some it was forced or impossible.
"McCain had an opportunity in this ballroom to speak to the issues conservatives disagree with him on, and he didn't do it," former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said after Mr. McCain addressed the 35th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Mitt Romney suspended his campaign in a speech to the same audience earlier yesterday.
Requiem for a right-wing dreamMitt Romney preached about a degraded America -- then quit the '08 race. Now hardcore conservatives have to cozy up to John McCain.
Feb. 8, 2008 | WASHINGTON -- What was supposed to be Mitt Romney's last stand started off reasonably well Thursday. The crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference was primed for him; cheers of "Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!" rose up even before he hit the stage. If there was ever a room where Romney could start the right-wing backlash of Rush Limbaugh's dreams against John McCain, this was going to be it.But Romney proceeded to snatch away the last hope of hardcore Republican activists. He would not be their devoted conservative savior in the race for the White House. Instead of digging in to continue his campaign -- which fared rather miserably at the polls on Super Tuesday -- he quit. By the end of the day, a painful truth had started to sink in for the CPAC faithful: It would be McCain in '08, or bust.
Permalink [Category: Conservatives, McCain, Romney]
McCain's Veep OptionsWhile congratulations are still premature, with Mitt Romney dropping out of the race yesterday it is now very likely that the Republican Party will nominate Sen. John McCain for president. If that happens, the GOP will, for the first time since 1976, select a candidate at odds with a large portion of its conservative members to be the standard bearer. At the same time, the party is more estranged from independent swing voters than it has been for decades.Permalink [Category: McCain, Vice President]This will pose a twin challenge for Mr. McCain. To meet it, he will have to become the champion of the brand of economic conservatism that has won national elections for Republicans since 1980.
The Republican Party spent decades building its brand as the party of small government, free enterprise and fiscal discipline. That brand put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980 and gave Republicans control of Congress in 1994. When it became clear two years ago that Republicans had abandoned those principles, voters swept them from power.
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