Pure Horserace: McCain Rattled By Ruling?

Supreme Court Ruling On Campaign Ads Could Hurt GOP Sponsor's Bid

(CBS)  Today the Supreme Court struck down restrictions on ads funded by corporations and unions running within two months of an election. The decision should have little partisan impact: Many corporations would favor Republicans and most unions would favor Democrats.

The ruling, which overturned a key provision of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance overhaul, may not even lead to more advertisements. As Justice David Souter pointed out in his dissent to the 5-4 decision, corporations and unions that want to run ads near an election may have already been able to do so via a legally separate political action committee.

So where does this decision make an impact? Probably on the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Only minutes after the ruling, Mitt Romney's campaign praised the decision in a press release that managed to mention John McCain, one of the chief sponsors of the struck-down provision, three times. "Today the Supreme Court reaffirmed the First Amendment by rejecting a key feature of McCain-Feingold," Romney said. "McCain-Feingold was a poorly-crafted bill."

McCain, in his own release, did not address Romney's words, but objected to the court's ruling. "While I respect their decision in this matter, it is regrettable that a split Supreme Court has carved out a narrow exception by which some corporate and labor expenditures can be used to target a federal candidate in the days and weeks before an election," he said.

Romney has already taken to referring to McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy — the basis for the immigration bill now before the Senate — in the same breath. Now, he has reason to focus on both equally, which may help him with conservatives who think the law unfairly restricts speech.

Another Republican who could be hurt by the ruling? Fred Thompson. After all, Thompson was a key player in assuring McCain-Feingold survived the Senate, and he has been trying to win over conservatives who are likely pleased about the decision. With Thompson about to enter the race, his rivals may have been handed a way to criticize him out of the gate. — David Miller


Obama On The Air: Ahead of next week's much-hyped visit to Iowa by both Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama will launch tomorrow what could be considered a pre-emptive strike in the form of two TV ads that will air in the state as a part of what CBS News' Sharyl Atkinson called an "inexpensive" media buy.

Both spots are biographical: One focuses on Obama's work in the Illinois state Senate and includes praise from both Republican and Democratic colleagues. The second spot concerns Obama's decision to work as a community organizer in Chicago, even though he could have taken a more lucrative position after graduating from Harvard Law School.

The commercials supplement other moves by the Obama campaign in recent weeks in Iowa, including sending out thousands of booklets and DVDs and a door-to-door campaign in 84 cities.

The ads are Obama's first in any state and signal that all three top Democrats consider winning Iowa's caucuses to be a top priority. John Edwards already leads in statewide polls. Hillary Clinton is deploying her most valuable asset — her husband — there, and now Obama has chosen to make the state the site of his first television ads.

The timing of the ads may have been part of a pre-existing strategy, but airing them one week before both Clintons visit does raise some questions, such as whether Obama believes that Clinton, not Edwards, represents his greatest obstacle to winning the state.

Will the ads boost Obama's numbers? The tactic certainly worked for Republican Mitt Romney. One thing is for sure: All three top Democrats' poll numbers deserve close scrutiny in the coming weeks. — David Miller


Betting On Thompson: Fred Thompson appears to be playing with house money in Nevada — without spending a dime, the former Tennessee senator and "Law & Order" star came out on top of a recent Mason-Dixon poll of Nevada Republicans. Thompson was supported by 25 percent in the poll, closely followed by Mitt Romney at 20 percent. Trailing both at 17 percent was Rudy Giuliani. John McCain fared worst among the major GOP candidates, falling to single digits with 8 percent support.

Results for Democrats were as expected, with Hillary Clinton leading both Barack Obama and John Edwards by wide margins. The poll numbers may be disappointing for Edwards, who is aggressively courting the state's union workers, and also for Bill Richardson, who is governor of neighboring New Mexico and has targeted the state's key Jan. 19 caucuses. He polled at 7 percent in the survey. — David Miller


Wyoming Welcome Wagon: A new face is about to join one of Washington's most exclusive clubs — the U.S. Senate. John Barrasso is set to be sworn in as the replacement for the late Republican Sen. Craig Thomas, who died of leukemia June 4. Though Wyoming's governor, Dave Freudenthal, is a Democrat, state law requires the replacement to come from the previous incumbent's party. Barrasso, a state senator and orthopedic surgeon, was selected from a list of three people submitted by the state GOP.

And with his appointment, Barrasso will also become a targeted incumbent. Appointed senators often don't carry the same advantages of incumbency that duly elected politicians do. That said, there are few places better to be an appointed Republican senator than Wyoming, which gave President Bush 69 percent of the vote in 2004. But Democrats have some cause for optimism: Freudenthal is very popular and the party came very close to knocking off the state's sole House member, Republican Barbara Cubin, in 2006. Still, they face an uphill fight if they want to win in Dick Cheney's home state. — David Miller


Editor's Note: Pure Horserace is a daily update of political news as interpreted by the political observers at CBSNews.com. Click here to sign up for the e-mail version.

[infidel_us]

That is incomprehensible but little compared to the devastation of the loads of what he is dropping now on this once great nation.
Posted by StokeyBob at 07:18 PM : Jun 25, 2007

Amen to that!

[infidel_us]

McCain should be rattled! He needs to retire before he embarasses himself any further.

[antoniof123]

Wow, once again the Justice's strick at America. One thing will happen either they start doing the will of Americans or we will have them removed too. Enough is Enough I used to be a swing voter not any more only Dems will get my vote. I am not as upset with the stealing of money as I am with the stealing of freedoms. In 2008 I for the first time will vote nothting but liberal period.

[stokeybob]

McCain does seem to have what the people that have been buying the politicians we are allowed to vote for have, an incomprehensible drive to bring about the end of this once great nation. Hopefully it does no good this time around.

The US has dropped 300 pounds of bombs for every man, woman, and child in Indochina, and 22 tons of bombs for every square mile in McCain's heyday.

That is incomprehensible but little compared to the devastation of the loads of what he is dropping now on this once great nation.