McCain No Longer A Maverick In S.C.

Politico: Once The Outsider, McCain Now The Insider In South Carolina

(The Politico)  This story was written by David Paul Kuhn.

---

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the few prominent South Carolina pols to back John McCain in 2000, was struck by how many of those attending a McCain fundraiser last Friday night stood with George W. Bush eight years ago.

Bush's state finance chairman, Bob Royall, was the host of the event.

Two other key Bush financial advisers, Eddie Floyd and John Rainey, were sponsors.

The same money that once rallied against McCain, it seemed, was now gathering on his behalf.

“It’s a heckuva a lot better being with you than against,” Graham told the 100 influential South Carolina Republicans attending.

Once the outsider, McCain is now the insider in South Carolina.

After months of campaigning as the insurgent - a role he relishes and one that aided his comeback in New Hampshire - McCain now finds himself as the closest thing to the state’s establishment candidate.

In South Carolina, McCain today holds a consistent but fragile lead over his nearest competitor, Mike Huckabee.

But a third of likely GOP voters remain undecided only days before voting, according to a Clemson University poll released Wednesday.

Amid this uncertainty, the McCain campaign is operating from an unfamiliar position - that of the party favorite's.

Some in the state are convinced that the local GOP establishment has diminished in recent years. They contend that ideological blocs are more valuable than institutional backing.

Still, McCain has constructed a firewall of endorsements from South Carolina politicians to avoid the sort of institutional resistance that contributed to his defeat here in 2000.

For more than a year, the Arizona senator has quietly and patiently accumulated one local endorsement after another.

Today, McCain’s base of local officeholders is at least three times larger than it was in 2000 against Bush. He has at least twice the endorsements of any other Republican candidate.

McCain now has more than 25 South Carolina mayoral endorsements and roughly twice that amount of state legislators.

Many of these political players, like state House Speaker Bobby Harrell, worked for Bush in 2000 and are actively campaigning for McCain across the state.

At the outset of the race, Mitt Romney, Huckabee, and Rudy Giuliani all courted Harrell.

But when Harrell and his wife, Cathy, met with McCain last winter in a side room of a hotel in Columbia, S.C., Harrell said that the one-time opponent made an effort to put the 2000 election behind him.

“That meeting told me a lot about the man,” Harrell recalled. “Because he spoke to me about national security, the threat of Islamic extremist terrorism.

"He turned to my wife and he spoke to her about Internet pornography and MySpace,” Harrell continued.

“He understood what issues he needed to talk to me about, and he understood what issues he had to talk to Cathy about.”

The Harrells decided to endorse McCain on the drive home.

Perhaps more critically, the elected commander of the state’s National Guard forces, Stan Spears, is also backing McCain.

In 2000, Spears was a key reason Bush won some veterans from McCain, a Vietnam war hero. Now Spears’ son is running McCain’s veterans outreach, a strategic voting bloc McCain is relying upon.

McCain received yet another endorsement Wednesday from renowned social conservative Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, who announced his support in Greenville, the heart of South Carolina’s Bible Belt.

Coburn did not back McCain in 2000 - nor did the South Carolina’s largest newspaper, The State, which recently endorsed him.

Still, there is some question as to how much the establishment imprimatur actually matters this time around.

There is no one with the stature of former Gov. Carroll Campbell, the architect of the modern South Carolina Republican party, who delivred for Bush in 2000. Campbell passed away in 2005.

And the state’s best-known pols are themselves divided.

While Graham is aligned with McCain, South Carolina’s other Republican senator, Jim DeMint, has endorsed Romney.

Gov. Mark Sanford, an early and strong supporter of McCain in 2000, has declined to back him, or any other candidate, this year.

While McCain has amassed more party support than his competitors have, the various ideological factions within the state party have not coalesced behind a single candidate.

A chief McCain rival here, Huckabee, has great appeal to evangelical voters.

But there are indications that Fred Thompson, who is making his last stand in South Carolina, is siphoning some of Huckabee's support from the so-called “values voters.”

Giuliani lags far behind in the polls here - behind even Ron Paul in the Clemson poll.

Then there is Romney, who has attempted to downplay expectations here, but is fueled by momentum from his Michigan primary victory.

The McCain campaign believes that Huckabee's foreign affairs inexperience accentuates McCain's national security credentials in a state where that is no small concern, while McCain adviser Mark McKinnon argues that Romney's shifts on key issues underscore McCain's character appeal.

"The best setup is to have an opponent who reflects exactly your opposites," said McKinnon, who worked with Bush in 2000 and 2004. McKinnon added that Romney was "the Republican John Kerry.”

One skeptic of the effect of McCain’s endorsements is David Woodard, a pollster at Clemson.

“It’s put more people on the stage when McCain has an event,” he said. “There may be 450,000 voting, and that means that McCain has 48 more to start off with than Huckabee. They may be able to get their wives to vote for them.”

Yet for South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, who remained neutral in 2000 as the state party chairman, Bush’s push-back against McCain was effective precisely because it was based in statewide party support.

“That’s why then-Gov. Bush won in 2000,” McMaster said, who now stands with McCain. “[Bush] had the establishment. He had a bigger team and a better-organized team."

One thing is certain: South Carolina is again pivotal to McCain’s fortunes. As he seeks to regain his footing after a disappointing second-place finish in Michigan, a win here would propel him into immediate front-runner status in Florida, where, for the first time this year, multiple polls now place McCain atop the field.

[antoniof123]

So

[starleo146]

You wonder why this country is in a mess the people who vote for Mc Cain is voting for a Bush clone. How can anyone forgive the lie about Iraq being safe and he went shopping. He is another warmonger and the first thing he will do is give amnesty and with his bully pulpit dare any of us to change it. He is a bully and he lied to us. Remind you of anyone republicans ,seems to me, are all alike

[cfin5]

Those advisers haven''t even blinked away from what they did for Bush in 2000. You see, McCain and Bush are CFR members, a tier class above the "demopublican party" rouse. In simpler terms,......Meet the new boss!...Same as the old boss!

[cfin5]

Does anyone understand that when McCain and Feingold did their dirty deed (ACT) against the 1st. Amendment since 2000 that both of them violated the 9th. Amendment to do so?.....Do you think that the founding fathers were legislative TARDS not perceiving that enemies years later would try to "lawyer" away our rights that we have with whatever crisis they could tout up? Henceforth the reason for the 9th. Amendment people! The folks in South Carolina with the way that they vote will tout one of two things whether they like it or not. And that is the sound of Nikita Khrushchev''s shoe banging on the table, or the ringing of the Liberty Bell........RON PAUL, proven public servant of the Constitution in 2008!

[cfin5]

The 9th. Amendment says,.....The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people......In other words, it is unconstitutional to interpret our guaranteed (certain) rights with a "pet ideology" (any reason at all) that would twist the meaning of the words with the intent to diminish and or confiscate the rest of our guaranteed rights.

[denn034]

I''ve decided to support McCain. He''s right on immigration and is a fellow veteran. We veterans do need to stick together after all.

[cfin5]

denn034,.......Stick together in what? Denying your honor in not upholding your oath to the Constitution of the United States?

[random_radar]

"I''''ve decided to support McCain. He''''s right on immigration and is a fellow veteran. We veterans do need to stick together after all.

Posted by denn034 at 05:27 PM : Jan 18, 2008"

Good idea. Hitler was a war veteran (first world war). I am sure he got a lot of support from fellow veterans. They thought he was right about minority relations, too.

[tylenol6]

I bet Rudy THE CROOK Guiliani will win the Florida primary with DIEBLOLD fixing the votes for him. It must
be a done deal for Rudy and that is why he is betting on
Florida. Everyone I know say Rudy is a crook.

[tylenol6]

If you really want to know who runs the government, and
no it isn''t Bush/Cheney, GOOGLE: Bilderberg and Illuminati......It is an eye opener of our secret government.

[likeitis5050]

Good idea. Hitler was a war veteran (first world war). I am sure he got a lot of support from fellow veterans. They thought he was right about minority relations, too.


Posted by random_radar

Good grief. What a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge stretch that was for anyone to make...geeeeeeeeeze.

[likeitis5050]

Meet the new boss!...Same as the old boss!


Posted by cfin5

I''ve heard the same comparison between Hillary and Bush. Bush just kinds of goes where ever you want to put him, doesn''t he?

[vastr-wcon]

If you support amnesty for illegal immigrants, you have only ONE clear choice in this election: AMNESTY-JOHN McCain.

You can rest assured that after another half-hearted effort at "securing our boarders", AMNESTY-JOHN, if elected president - or otherwise - will do everything in his power to p*ss on those legal immigrants awaiting for citizenship, and immediately grant full citizenship status to all those that illegally entered our country [with the usual BS that they "learn" English ;) and pay a "fine" ;)].

Don''t be fooled by cheap imitators like the Huskster - who will only use your tax dollars for more benefits for illegals, or Rudy "Sanctuary City" Giuliani, who just looks the other way whenever an illegal approaches.

So, if 1. you''ve always wanted to have to learn spanish, or 2. you really want your town to achieve the coveted "barrio" status, or 3. you enjoy lower wages, or 4. you want all those empty spaces in the local prison filled, or 5. you want to pay even more hospital costs for ANCHOR babies --- THEN AMNESTY-JUAN IS YOUR GRI''NGO!

!Hurra para la amnistia!

[cfin5]

Posted by likeitis5050 at 06:19 PM : Jan 18, 2008-------Actually, he goes where ever he wants to go. My problem and others is trying to keep up with whats really going on. Hillary is no different in ideology because a neocon and a neolib are the same thing in the results of their efforts. She''s CFR too......And me? I just want to be an American, not a "Canamerexican".

[stezzer]

I hope Mr. Romney wins. His religion is irrelevant. Global recession is looming, and the world needs a man who has an outstanding fiscal record. Mitt Romney is that man.

A dollar in the pocket is worth more than two Baptists in the White House.

[perception5]

McCain represents the "old guard" and is part of the problem that we are having with Washington DC.

It''s is getting pretty clear that the most corrupt institution in America, our wolfpack press, is hell bent on picking the GOP nominee this year.

Our corrupt wolfpack press has been propping up and promoting Slick Huck and Lone Ranger McCain.

Our wolfpack press "hates" Mitt Romney which is why we have all these themes....."Mormon theme", flip flop theme, rich self-funding theme. All negative propaganda themes that reminds me of the German press of the late 1930''s.

Mitt is clearly the best candidate running from either party in 2008, no question about it!

.............GO MITT !!!

[nirak2-2009]

Anyone voting for any Republican should get his head examined and that includes old geezer McCain after what the GOP did to America and it''s people in the last 7 years.

[bettybb2]

McCain is one of two Neo Con condidates, the other is Rudy, that the White House,and the RNC (Mehlman) are pushing.

The Neo Cons are getting desperate. They want their guy in the White House to continue the appalling policies Bush and his buddies have sets up.

McCain is with the Neo Con program. He said we would stay in Iraq a 100 years, translate that to mean permanent basis, and control of Iraqi oil. It also means our kids continue to die to make the rich richer.

McCain is with the Neo Cons on the dissolution of America through the North American Union/free trade/Nafta. That is why he wants amensty - rather than legal immigrants. Amnesty brings in the Mexicans. Others need not apply.

I trust S. Carolina will rise up and bury McCain.

[bettybb2]

Tidssandbeer,

If you are for McCain or Rudy, kiss America goodbye.

[bettybb2]

Nirak,

Anyone voting Dem is an Aino, American in Name Only.

Signed: a 20 plus activist Dem who will vote for the rule of law ..ie for deportation of illegals, and against the North American Union huge trade profits for a few.

[bettybb2]

Perceptions,

You are right on the money. And it is true that the Neo Cons are aslo backing the Huskter.

Neo Cons are trying to kill off Mitt because he won''t pay their game. Thank God there are two candidates with some integrety and intellegence, Mitt and Fred.

[sgtrds]

I don''t like John McCain. I think he''s too old, too senile and too much of a fan of the illegal war in Iraq. I hope he doesn''t win the nomination and I certainly hope he''s never in the White House except as a visitor. That said and as a Vietnam vet myself, it''s nauseating how the right wing slime machine attacks his service during Vietnam with out and out lies. McCain was a war hero, as was John Kerry and it''s sick when others try to discredit them for political gain like the right wing of the GOP does. Esp since most of the neocon right wing fringe are gutless cowards who never served or who got out of combat via political connections.

[Krazcarl]

I don''t care I''m a liberal democrat but respect Mcain at least he did his duty and didn''t run from it though I was reading Ross Periot thoughts the other day and they were very unflatering if true would change my opinion....

[bettybb2]

VastR:

Correct. Except their are two real Amerians running, Mitt and Fred. Both will put Americans first, not give any amnesty, but will secure our borders and deport the invaders. Fred will even make English our official language.

The others are going for the North American Union/ free trade open borders route. Even old Huckabee. He will not give "citizenship" but he will have all 20 million back in the next day on long term visas. McCain of course will open up the border, and Rudy willl pretend like Bush there is border control then do nothing.

The Dems will just hand over the American flag and say hoist up the Mexican one instead and we all must speak Spanish now.

[bettybb2]

McCain was extremely courage no matter what anyone says during Nam. And no one should be saying anything else.

Too bad he has not carried that courage thoughtout his life.

A year ago he spoke to a group of evangelicals and swore he was a creationist. During the National debate on TV, he hestitated, you could see him calculating, and then said he was for evolution.

Now he says we must be in Iraq 100 years. That will drain the treasury nicely, not to mention the deaths of all our kids protecting oil for the rich companies.

McCain has made a pack with Neo Cons, and with the evangelicals. Remember he told Dobson was it that they are an intolerant group? Now he loves them.

The guy has no morals.

Besides, he will open the border, give citizenship to 20 million and I bet it won''t be the corporations who pay the 2.5 trillion price tag for that. He is for Spanish in the USA. It is good bye America if he or any of the Neo Cons are elected.

[j-whitman]

Poor old John McCain ---
-- The same people who launched the swift boat attack against John Kerry & Jane Fonda calling her Hanoi Jane -
-- Now are attacking McCain calling him, ''The Hanoi Songbird''

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/

[merlgrey]

knock knock.
whos there?
Keating Five.
oh cr@p

[demkicker]

I see the left is getting worried about McCain. That is a good thing. The left wants to elect someone that takes from the doers of America and give to the "do nothing for it people".
If you want more out of life, that will require the "takers" to get off there sorry butts and go to work, stop having multiple kids that there household can not afford and stop smoking crack. At the end of a 7 day period, you will receive a "Paycheck" for your efforts. The less crack you smoke and the more brain cells re grow, the more you will make. I take great offense at people "LIBS" thinking you have a right to reward these "dirt bags" with my hard efforts and I get nothing in return.
America is fading away fast with all these new laws protecting minorities "FEELINGS". "The dems attempt to get a voter base because the smart Americans will always vote GOP. The dems try to make it easier for foreign nationals to be granted citizenship, so they can count on there votes. How pathetic is that? They prey on the brainless and uninformed.

The following is for: Clinton, Edwards, Obahma, pelosi, Reed and there followers.

"BITE ME"!!!!!!

[cfin5]

Posted by demkicker at 09:26 PM : Jan 18, 2008--------You really don''t know McSenator McCain do you? Not to mention why the media likes him.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya . His
mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia . Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta . He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, "He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school." Obama''s political handlers are attempting to make it appear that he is not a radical.

[tylenol6]

McCain has sold out his Arizona contitiuents. I hear they want to recall him. LOOKS LIKE JOHNNY MC CAIN SOLD
THEM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by pilgrimsway

You''''re full of it. Just tell the truth and say you don''''t want a "Black" man as president, quit hiding behind lies and false excuses for your racial intolerance, that is the coward''''s way.

I am an American, non Muslim, and have lived in Indonesia for the better part of fifteen years, I have helped build, and given Jazz music seminars and demonstrations at several madrassahs throughout the country. They are just like the private catholic schools all over the US, none are training terrorists.

Even if Obama were a Muslim, that only means he respects the god of Abraham, nothing more, but the fact that he claims Christianity is something a true Muslim would never do, renounce his religion for the sake of "blending in". Some of you fake Christians might, but I challenge you to show and examples where a person claiming to be Christian was actually a Muslim.

So, admit your racist leanings, and stop wasting the time of rational people with your lies, they don''''t convince anyone of anything, except your as-yet-unclassified mental illness.

This "pilgrimsway" cowardly racist is very possibly a paid staff worker for one of the neonazicon candidates who wants to appeal to the inbreds that probably make up a portion of his or her constituency, but is too cowardly to wish to be directly associated with such idiocy.

[iceman_1960]

"McCain No Longer A Maverick"

Still a Paladin, though.

[brianbwb-2009]

The following is for: Clinton, Edwards, Obahma, pelosi, Reed and there followers.
"BITE ME"!!!!!!
Posted by demkicker

Don''t worry, they will, but not nearly as deeply as you have been bitten by this administration.

They are all, both sides corrupt, but you only like the Republicans because in order to obfuscate their brand of corruption, they spew the same brand of intolerance that you so love to hear, thinking, like a sucker, that they somehow validate your ignorance, so you choose not to look as they ream you and your family''s economic future.

But after all the hate mongering they spew, look at your wallet, it is even thinner than it would be under a "Democratic" administration.

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by brianbwb at 12:02 AM : Jan 19, 2008

These fools think swift boating will work twice in a row.

Factcheck.org has identified several wealthy conservatives who were behind the swifties in 2004, and are now greasing the palms of a new generation of liars.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by Iceman_1960

That is why I call them cowards, because they are afraid of the reaction to their true agendas, so they hide behind lies, obfuscations, and false rhetoric, and try to use fear as a weapon, which is the true definition of "terrorism".

[jerr11]

This old grandad warmonger is as guilty of the Bush admin of the crimes committed against the American people by going into Iraq.

At his age he should be making his peace with the Lord and preparing for his next life, instead of facilitating the killing and looting going on in Iraq by the neocons!

[smirk5]

McCain is trying to sew up the bedwetter vote.

[smirk5]

McCain, at his age, is closer to the gates of Hell than maybe he even knows.

[brianbwb-2009]

"McCain is trying to sew up the bedwetter vote."
Posted by Smirk5

Be nice now, if we can get rid of the neonazicons and other corrupt government officials, starting in this next election, you yourself might live to be as old as McCain''s intended audience...

[brianbwb-2009]

Hey Brian,I wouldn''''t get my hopes up.DC is like the hydra of mythology,you cut out one assshole,and seven more pop up! ;)
Posted by lexluthor5

Sad, but true. However, if one or two of the heads is cut in a grisly enough fashion, (capital punishment) maybe the other heads will wise up.

[sleepyric]

white haired Bush...nothing more..

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Sorry for my comments. Its what I read at.
Do not go to this address its full of lies.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/
obama/muslim.asp

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Sorry for my comments.
Do not go to this address its full of lies

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2006/12/barack_hussein.html

[jerr11]

Sorry for my comments.
Do not go to this address its full of lies

Posted by pilgrimsway at 09:51 AM : Jan 19, 2008


Or better still go to this address:

www.swiftboatpilgrims.org/gop/liars/at/work/

LOL

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Obama quote
Some of this is already beginning to happen. Pastors, friends of mine like Rick Warren and T.D. Jakes are wielding their enormous influences to confront AIDS, Third World debt relief, and the genocide in Darfur. Religious thinkers and activists like our good friend
Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo are lifting up the Biblical injunction to help the poor as a means of mobilizing Christians against budget cuts to social programs and growing inequality.
And by the way, we need Christians on Capitol Hill, Jews on Capitol Hill and Muslims on Capitol Hill talking about the estate tax. When you''''ve got an estate tax debate that proposes a trillion dollars being taken out of social programs to go to a handful of folks who don''''t need and weren''''t even asking for it, you know that we need an injection of morality in our political debate.

This is the truth that we should read.
Obama in 08!

[starleo146]

McCain has sold out his Arizona contitiuents. I hear they want to recall him. LOOKS LIKE JOHNNY MC CAIN SOLD
THEM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by tylenol6 at 10:30 PM : Jan 18, 2008


I was listening to c-span callers and Arizona callers had nothing, nothing good to say about John Mc Cain they talked about his temper, he is a warmonger, he lies and they want to recall him as senator

[starleo146]

white haired Bush...nothing more..

Posted by sleepyric at 08:38 AM : Jan 19, 2008
+ report

You got that right what kind of people are voting for him either they are uninformed or just plain stupid

[starleo146]

Posted by demkicker at 09:26 PM : Jan 18, 2008--------You really don''''t know McSenator McCain do you? Not to mention why the media likes him.

Posted by cfin5 at 09:52 PM : Jan 18, 2008


I know the media loves him WHY? I do not know they are the ones who pushed where he is today. I get so sick of the media trying to brainwash the public int doing what they want and the people just do exactly what they want. Tim Russet Bob Sheiver Katie Couric and Faux Nooze can all go to .

[starleo146]

I don''''t like John McCain. I think he''''s too old, too senile and too much of a fan of the illegal war in Iraq. I hope he doesn''''t win the nomination and I certainly hope he''''s never in the White House except as a visitor. That said and as a Vietnam vet myself, it''''s nauseating how the right wing slime machine attacks his service during Vietnam with out and out lies. McCain was a war hero, as was John Kerry and it''''s sick when others try to discredit them for political gain like the right wing of the GOP does. Esp since most of the neocon right wing fringe are gutless cowards who never served or who got out of combat via political connections.

Posted by SgtRDS at 08:19 PM : Jan 18, 2008
+ report ab

Sarge, they figured it worked on Kerry, we will try it on Mc Cain, but I agree with every word of your post.