McCain Inner Circle Maps New Plan

Washington Post: Looking to November, Campaign of Presumed GOP Nominee Shifts Focus and Message

(WASHINGTONPOST.COM)  This story was written by Michael D. Shear.

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Five top aides to Sen. John McCain hunkered down for two days of meetings at the senator's rustic cabin south of Flagstaff, Ariz., over the weekend as they began to plot his transformation from primary-season candidate to Republican nominee.

As they ate barbecue with McCain and his wife, Cindy, the campaign's inner circle debated the dynamics of a race against either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama, the funding necessary for victory, the political climate likely to exist six months from now, and the shape of the organization they will need to quickly assemble.

Plans call for a bigger staff, outreach to more potential donors, offices in battleground states and a revised campaign message that challenges the Democratic vision for change in Washington. Former president George H.W. Bush endorsed McCain yesterday morning, giving his campaign the seal of the first family of the Republican Party and signaling that the transition discussed in Sedona has already begun.

"The McCain campaign recognizes the inevitability of John McCain's nomination," said one of the five, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the meeting was private. "He'll be facing either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in a race that doesn't appear it's going to be settled anytime soon. Obviously, the conversation focused on the dynamics of the race against either one of them."

The elder Bush praised McCain yesterday, calling him the right person to unite Republicans and adding: "No one is better prepared to lead our nation in these trying times than Senator John McCain." But after decades in which the senator from Arizona has been more agitator than leader within the Republican Party, aides say he must find a way to live up to his reputation for independence while learning to serve as the GOP's face and chief spokesman.

"We are mindful of lessons learned" when the campaign tried last year to build a massive infrastructure fusing McCain loyalists with Bush insiders, said a top adviser who talked about the general election on the condition of anonymity. Those moves led to a midsummer campaign collapse. "I do not think you should expect we will go on a hiring binge and have a huge, wildly overstaffed campaign. You will need to create a structure that has flexibility."

McCain's strategists -- including campaign manager Rick Davis, media guru Mark McKinnon, and advisers Mark Salter, Steve Schmidt and Charlie Black -- will form the nucleus of McCain's general election campaign. But the team will have to grow to include some of the senator's rivals and critics -- of whom there are many on Capitol Hill.

"The balance of power in Washington can change very quickly," said Todd Harris, a GOP strategist who worked on McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. "We are witnessing that change now. A lot of people within the party are starting to say, 'Well, he's our maverick now.'"

For the moment, McCain is still running against former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who has vowed to stay in the race until McCain has the 1,191 delegates necessary to guarantee the party nomination. He has 903 delegates after adding 50 to his total from Michigan and Louisiana, according to a tally by the Associated Press. If all of former candidate Mitt Romney's delegates back McCain, he will be just a few short of the nomination. The reality that the race will go on is slowing his pivot toward the general election and a matchup with either Obama or Clinton. But his message has already begun to evolve.

At a stop in Wisconsin on Friday, McCain's new focus was evident as he repeatedly took aim at Obama and Clinton. He predicted that the country will hear a meaningful debate between himself and whoever becomes the Democratic nominee in the fall.

"It will be whether we want higher taxes or lower taxes, it will be whether we want bigger government or less government, it will be whether you want government running the health-care system in America or we want families to make the choices," McCain told supporters at a rally in Oshkosh.

[watcher269-2009]

Actually, most of these Bushed! segments are about lying liars, aren%u2019t they? Continuing to track the scandals du jour that make up life in BushWorld, the first story up is Bush%u2019s touting of his increases to his global fund to fight AIDS, TB and malaria. The only problem is that the %u201Cincrease%u201D that Bush wants Congress to approve is actually a 40% decrease from last year%u2019s Congressional-instigated funding.

Then there is the story of the infamous border fence being built along the US / Mexico border, ostensibly to prevent illegal immigration. Many residents near the border have been grumbling about the fence going through their land, but there%u2019s one Texas resident that isn%u2019t worried at all, because the border fence will stop at his property: R. L. Hunt. I%u2019m sure the fact that he%u2019s a oil billionaire, who not only donated money to the Bush campaigns but also helped fund the upcoming presidential library and sits on the board for Halliburton had nothing to do with it.

[watcher269-2009]

WOW - can you believe the Hypocrisy from the Republicans?

Bay Buchanan said this after calling the NY Times/McCain love fest story a smear/hit job on CNN to Anderson Cooper:

Bay: This is not the Democratic Party, this is a party of values. We assume our candidates have been loyal to their family.

&^&*%#@!___Sorry, I%u2014just fell off my chair from laughter. Let%u2019s ask her about David Vitter and Larry Craig and Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani and. Bay, who was supporting the Mitt Romney campaign%u2014 feels it would have had an impact on the primary%u2026.David Gergen says it%u2019s a red herring that the Times held onto the story for political reasons and then he hit her on the family value meme by reminding her of the Mark Foley story. She just shrugged it off%u2026.haha

The Washington Post has a name and it%u2019s John Weaver%u2014a very close friend to McCain:

Aides to Sen. John McCain confronted a female telecommunications lobbyist in late 1999 and asked her to distance herself from the senator during the presidential campaign he was about to launch, according to one of McCain%u2019s longest-serving political strategists.

John Weaver, who served as McCain%u2019s closest confidant until leaving his current campaign last year, said he met with Vicki Iseman at the Center Cafe in Union Station and urged her to stay away from McCain. Association with a lobbyist would undermine his image as an opponent of special interests, aides had concluded%u2026

[bareed1226]

This guy is calling out Obama about finance issues... PLEASE..

1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln''s chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift''s failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.

This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee''s investigation focused on five senators: Alan Cranston (D-CA); Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ); John Glenn (D-OH); John McCain (R-AZ); and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (D-MI), who became known as the Keating Five.
After months of testimony revealed that all five senators acted improperly to differing degrees, the senators continually said they were following the status quo of campaign funding practices. The only member of the Keating Five still in the U.S. Senate is John McCain.... The man with all the experience...

[alburbooks]

This is a beautiful history about old politicians...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/politics/21mccain.html?pagewanted=4&hp

[pensacola88]

If Rush Limbaugh doesn''t like you, then you must be doing something right!

If John McCain wants to grab some "Independant Votes", then he needs to clobber Rush Limbaugh in the media polls and call him what he is - a Loud Mouth extremist with the heart of a terrorist.

If John McCain remains silent on the Rush Limbaugh attacks, then his hopes will be gone for sucessful presidential bid. McCain has everything to gain by attacking Rush Limbaugh, just as George H. Bush attacked Dan Rather in the ''92 election after being called a whimp.

[josephjsalas]

GREAT! hundred year man with a hundred year plan!
Washington is an overcapacitated diaper!
Re-Experience it for 100 years or (parish the notion)
"CHANGE IT"!

[bdrlnt4rl]

Let US pray for an insane McCain and Neocon Huckabee ticket from the GOP Coalition of Republicons, RINOs, Neocons, Mormons, and Used Car Salesmen. Americans will never put another war monger and an Evangelical Freak in the White House again for the rest of all of our lifetimes. ONe thing that we can always count on from Republicons is they always repeat their past, leaving themselves with absolutely no future.

Posted by danstoned
******************************

it is sad to hear idiots voice their uneducated opinion. the mormons are very successful. and they love america. please people think about what is said before you say it.

[fibonacci_]

Dear former Ron Paul spammer (Prophet),

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

fibonacci_

[nothappyatall]

Another OLD white *** candidate who looks like he should be in a nursing home... wonder what would happen if a week before election day he just up and croaks from a heart attack?

[darrren12000]

GO MCCAIN. The Dems are the party of repeat losses. Again and again and again. It''s so funny to see them bank it on Obama and blindly think he will roll through without any type of critical analysis. Sorry, but you cant raise the racism thing all the way to Novemeber. He''s a gonner. No experience..need not apply. Stupid Dems!

[gkc99]

"McCain Inner Circle Maps New Plan"


It''s called FIND SOME PEOPLE WHO AREN''T 60+ YEAR OLD WHITIES TO PUT ON TV!

There must be a few uncle Toms and Gen X yuppies out there!

[mcvet]

Now I know I''''m not by any means a computer expert so I have no solution for this, but maybe some "young and handsome computer geek from US of Americha" can tell us how to keep these kind of solicitations from appearing on our comment zone. These are as bad as the Pe*is enlargement ads I keep getting that I don''''t need. Come on, Oh Techno-Wizards! Help us!


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Posted by taylpatr at 12:27 AM : Feb 20, 2008
+ report abuse

It doesn''t matter who points out a fact, if it''s fact it should be heard. I''m not sure who you think is commenting that shouldn''t but to ignore the points raised because they MAY come from an interested party that can''t vote is really a put down of American''s. What you are really saying is, "We have the ignorant people of this country under control and you people do not have a right to interfer with that". Do you know how stupid, even for a nazi, that sounds? Sieg Heil Mein Fuhrer!!

[puritan9]

The American people are sick and tired of the Republican games to steal from the poor and the middle-class, and give more to the rich. The Republican mentality is that somehow the rich people know how to spend money better than the have-nots. This rich-poor segregation only results in creating misery for the hard-working majority while the hardly-working minority rich buys islands, mansions, yachts, politicians, etc. The Republicans believe in Reagan style trickle-down economics, where the rich get the lion%u2019s share of the cake and the rest get the crumbs.

[puritan9]

Obama will beat McCain hands down! When McCain attacks Obama%u2019s eloquence it%u2019s because he does not have any. Obama%u2019s eloquence is not empty, it is filled with hope that the American people understand and the Republican%u2019s just don%u2019t get it!

[puritan9]

What really drives the Republicans mad is that Obama is not for sale!

[andor3]

"Honorary-Democrat McCain forgot to tell us which of the two he is . . . hard to tell"

what McCain is and what he stands for depends on who he is talking to, what day of he week it is, and what city he is in.

And now that the Democrats (and nearly every sane person in the world) are offering plans for changing a set of horribly failed policies and practices, his campaign (not him--he does not get to decide important things like what he believes this week) has decided to oppose change. Brilliant. Plays right into the Democratic strategy. The only way that can work for Republicans is the tired old "scare em a lot" tactic we have had it with that one.

[samthetvcat]

"It will be whether we want higher taxes or lower taxes, it will be whether we want bigger government or less government, it will be whether you want government running the health-care system in America or we want families to make the choices," McCain told supporters at a rally in Oshkosh."

Honorary-Democrat McCain forgot to tell us which of the two he is . . . hard to tell

ha ha

PS Yeah those icky pick-up posts are gross!

[taylpatr]

I was going to comment on the story but the posts from the eastern Europeans trying to sound like "young and handsome man from U.S." stopped me.
Now I know I''m not by any means a computer expert so I have no solution for this, but maybe some "young and handsome computer geek from US of Americha" can tell us how to keep these kind of solicitations from appearing on our comment zone. These are as bad as the Pe*is enlargement ads I keep getting that I don''t need. Come on, Oh Techno-Wizards! Help us!

[bud28dy]

There are only three Repubs left and Paul still gets 5% of the vote. Is he staying in this thing so he can continue to fleece his few but wealthy supporters?

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Move over Martin Luther King! Obama is here to replace your dream! Maybe if you were alive you could look up to Him as your mentor! In any case you would carry Obamas luggage for His dreams not your dream!