McCain Transforms Campaign As Dems Battle

Washington Post: GOP Candidate Developing Strategies, Tactics For General Election Showdown

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Michael D. Shear and Dan Balz.

---

As his Democratic presidential rivals squabble, Sen. John McCain has moved to transform his ragtag primary campaign into a general-election operation by boosting fundraising, establishing control over the Republican National Committee, and beginning a conversation with voters who live in states where he has not campaigned.

One of McCain's first decisions has been to assemble a novel and risky campaign structure that will rely on 10 "regional managers" who will make daily decisions in the states under their direction, his advisers said. The managers will gather today in New Mexico to plot strategy with GOP state officials.

Some Republican strategists have said that McCain has not made the best use of the extra time that the prolonged Democratic nomination battle has given him. They have criticized the pace and direction of his decisions and have questioned why the senator from Arizona has not held more fundraisers to close the huge financial gap between him and his rivals.

Despite scheduling numerous events designed to grab attention, including a trip to meet with leaders in Iraq, Israel and Europe, McCain has struggled to be heard during the battle between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. The few times he has broken through have largely been because of questionable decisions or mistakes, such as when he confused Sunni and Shiite extremists and when he was criticized for accepting the endorsement of a controversial television evangelist.

McCain embarked yesterday on his latest effort to capture the spotlight: his "Service to America" tour. The week-long journey will put him in locations that have been influential in shaping his life -- including his family's ancestral home in Meridian, Miss.; the Naval Academy in Annapolis; and the naval air station in Jacksonville, Fla., where he arrived after more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

The growing McCain team is also under no illusions about the financial and political energy of the opposition, noting the huge turnouts in Democratic primaries and the enormous sums of money Obama and Clinton have raised.

In February, the month he effectively clinched the GOP nomination, McCain raised $11 million -- an eighth of the combined total of his Democratic rivals.

A number of Mitt Romney's supporters said McCain's effort to win over his ex-rival's biggest donors has had mixed results.

"Some of the top leadership, who were very emotionally involved, still can't get over it," said Brad Freeman, a California financier who backed the former Massachusetts governor. "They said, 'Hey, I'm not being rational. But right now I can't.' Fact is, Romney inspired a lot of loyalty and enthusiasm in people."

Aides to McCain said that fundraising has improved, and that they raised $5 million in a five-day West Coast swing last week. Senior adviser Charles R. Black Jr. said the March fundraising take will be "an impressive number," though he declined to provide one.

One element that will work in McCain's favor in coming weeks is the formation of the Republican Party's Victory Committee, which can put together events that are held jointly by the senator and the Republican National Committee. Those events can bring in nearly $30,000 per person because the limits for giving to the RNC are much higher than those for candidates.

The naming last month of Lew Eisenberg, a former partner at Goldman Sachs and one of the heaviest hitters in Republican money circles, as the finance chairman of the Victory Committee silenced many of McCain's critics on the fundraising front.

"Will it come together? Yes," said a top fundraiser who supported one of McCain's GOP rivals and is now backing the senator from Arizona. "Is it coming together? Yes. Are there folks who would have liked it to come together quicker? Yes."

Polls suggest that McCain's position on the sidelines of Democrats' infighting has elevated his stature, at least for now. In some surveys, McCain has a slight edge over Obama and Clinton. And conservative Republicans appear to be growing more comfortable with the sometimes maverick senator as their nominee.

But McCain's advisers acknowledge that the Republican Party still has an image problem. Generic ballot tests, whether for presidential or congressional elections, show Republicans running well behind Democrats, and part of the campaign's goal is to start rebranding the GOP.

McCain recruited two key officials at the RNC: Frank J. Donatelli, a Reagan administration official, will serve as deputy chairman and will be the campaign's liaison to the committee. Mike DuHaime, who managed former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's presidential campaign and used to be an RNC political director, will help staff the RNC's political team. He will also work directly for McCain.

[obama8years]

Ok this is what I got so far again PLEASE IF SOMETHING IS NOT TRUE I WILL TAKE IT OFF. HONEST

Now I think I have a complete list....if anything is not true, I will take it off the list.

CAN ANYONE AD ANYTHING, AM I MISSING ANYTHING ABOUT OBAMA AND HIS ASSOCIATION TO UNSAVORY CHARACTERS. MUCH APPRECIATED. MAKING A LIST AND CHECKING IT TWICE.

How can anyone even think of voting for Obama.

- Went with farakahn to the million man march

- 20 years of church, he stated he rarely missed a sun.

- Related to Muslim Cousin who wants sharia law

- Ties to Ayers who is a known terrorist

- His Wife is finally proud of america

- His wife wrote an essay on black seperatists in
Princeton

- His pastor gave farakahn an award

- His pastor is pro-hamas

- Obama Cousin campaigning for change in kenya.

- Obama lied about his liberal past

- Obama lied about his pastor

- Obama PA campaign Ad about Oil was a Fraud

- Obama Said Babys are a Pain(not exact quote)

- Relationship with Rezco

- Michelle Obama Finances with Hospital

[obama8years]

Hey folks, let''''''''s try to leave Obama''''''''s wife out of the campaign discussion - - Posted by BLKPRESIDENT

Yeah, leave his wife out, his pastor out , his anti-American church out, his cousin in Kenya, Louis Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam, and all other other hate America crowd he associated with.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by trapbreak at 04:52 PM : Apr 01, 2008

Yeah, you''ve got John McCain with a distinguished military family, a distinguished military career while serving his country, who has served many years as a US senator and who is one of few republicans that never sucked up to Limpdrug and voted against the party at times.

And then you have Obama...

A man who calls his white mother and grandmother racists and who writes books about his disgust of them, a man who wanted to emulate his Kenyan father, whom he admired for his Islamic bliefs, and whose brother supports the Luo tribe and basically an Islamic extremist, whose wife can feel no pride in her country who who spews the separatist teachings of their pastor of 20 years at every opportunity, and about how black people don''t have sense enough to support a black candidate for president. A man who has less than 36 months experience as a US senator, and who basically was a failure during 7 years of his terms as an Illinois senator. A man who has supported corrupt politicians and developers in Chicago, and who claims to be above politics as usual, when he practiced dirty politics from day one.

Yeah, I''d say comparing these two men is rather ludicrous.

[obama8years]

youtube.com/watch?v=LIe4d9Nmg9k

Obama is backing muslim extremist!

badbarack.org

obamatruth.org

OBAMA TIES TO HAMAS

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency today reports that the Wright, Jr., long-time pastor of Obama, published an op-ed piece signed by a Hamas leader. The item appeared in the July 22, 2007 edition of his Trinity United Church newspaper on the "Pastor''s Page." Justifies attacks on Israeli civilians, and carries a supporting introduction by Mr. Wright.

Obama issued a statement strongly condemning these views of his pastor. "I certainly wasnt in church when that outrageously wrong [Hamas] piece was re-printed in the bulletin.


Obama is a long-time member of Trinity United, and his financial contributions to his church are reported to be substantial ("All told, the [Obama] couple gave $27,500 to [Trinity United] in 2005 and 2006," according to the New York Times of March 26). His moral support to the church has been unwavering. As more and more and more details of the extremist political positions of the church are revealed, Obamas response has been to distance himself from these, but also to repeat, over and over, that he didn''t know, that he wasn''t there.

I find it very difficult to believe that an intelligent, energetic, and very political man like Obama is perpetually ignorant about what goes on in the church to which he devotes so many of his resources. If he does get to the White House....

[hungry1968]

TO TRY TO PUT McCAIN IN THE BUSH CAMP WON''T FLY.

Posted by trapbreak at 05:40 PM : Apr 01, 2008




I don''t have to try - he IS George Bush. The only difference is the military record. His voting record and legislation proposal''s are horrible!!


Bill Sponsorship & Cosponsorship
Statistics: John McCain has sponsored 403 bills since Jan 21, 1997, of which 263 haven''t made it out of committee (Extremely Poor) and 12 were successfully enacted (Very Good, relative to peers). McCain has co-sponsored 879 bills during the same time period (Average, relative to peers).



Here is his pitiful voting record and the amount of votes missed: John McCain missed 632 of 3793 votes (17%) since Jan 22, 1997.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?tab=votes&id=300071

[hungry1968]

Here, Tim Russert reads out a long detailed John McCain quote to him, and McCain doesn"t even realize it"s something he said for the record in the Senate.

Posted by Iceman_1960 at 05:19 PM : Apr 01, 2008



WOW!! Sad, sad, sad. And that''s the cream of the republican crop?

[iceman_1960]

"I think the worst part about it, is McCain himself asked Petraeus the questions, and he couldn"t remember Petraeus" answers only 5 days later!!
- Posted by hungry1968 at 05:11 PM : Apr 01, 2008
--------------------

It gets worse.

Here, Tim Russert reads out a long detailed John McCain quote to him, and McCain doesn"t even realize it"s something he said for the record in the Senate.

"The Green Zone" is licking its chops at the prospect of having a puppet like him, an amiable empty suit, in the White House for another four years.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ajm5JTf7jZs

[hungry1968]

Posted by trapbreak at 04:52 PM : Apr 01, 2008




So what? Military experience has NOTHING to do with making that a person a good president. His own military career ended in failure, and you can''t possibly count his family''s service as his own, can you?

To me, that''s as absurd as someone saying they''re qualified to be president because their husband was a president once.



To be fair, I''ll ask you to please list SOME (not all) of McCain''s political accomplishments.

[hungry1968]

He scored a recent TKO over a clearly frightened and confused John McCain:

Seen in this video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZrJK
B22PITs

Posted by Iceman_1960 at 04:58 PM : Apr 01, 2008




Wow!! Thanks for that Iceman!! I haven''t seen that before.

I think the worst part about it, is McCain himself asked Petraeus the questions, and he couldn''t remember Petraeus'' answers only 5 days later!!

[iceman_1960]

"McCain was on George Washington"s staff."
- Posted by trapbreak at 04:52 PM : Apr 01, 2008
-----------------

Wow.

I knew he was old, but I didn"t know he was THAT old.

No wonder he"s so mentally confused and bewildered.

[iceman_1960]

Joh Kerry: One Silver Star, One Bronze Star Three Purple Hearts.

A year served in Vietnam (on the USS Gridley and on Swift Boats)

He scored a recent TKO over a clearly frightened and confused John McCain:

Seen in this video

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZrJKB22PITs

[iceman_1960]

George Armstrong Custer graduated last in the Class of 1861 from the United States Military Academy, just after the start of the Civil War.

John McCain graduated 894 out of 899 at Annapolis in 1960.

Both men, however, had an unshakeable faith that their surge of troops would eventually defeat any force of nonwhite insurgents they might face.

But as Custer said to his troops at Little Bighorn, "My friends, we can win this fight. The consequences of defeat would be hair-raising."

[hungry1968]

(In fairness to Custer, he was a succcessful general except for one minor surge in Montana.]


Posted by Iceman_1960 at 04:38 PM : Apr 01, 2008



LOL!!!

[iceman_1960]

Abe Lincoln and Barack Obama never had anything like the brilliant military experienc of General George McClellan or Jimmy Carter.

But John McCain"s academic record rivals that of George Armstrong Custer -- both finished at the bottom at West Point and Annapolis.

(In fairness to Custer, he was a succcessful general except for one minor surge in Montana.]

[hungry1968]

Ulysses Grant made your list of "successful presidents" ?

Until George Idiot Bush came along, Grant was perhaps the worst president we ever had, and one of the most corrupt.

Posted by Iceman_1960 at 04:25 PM : Apr 01, 2008




In Grant''s defense, I would rank him third behind Reagan, and then the undisputed champion - Bush Jr.

Until Jr. was appointed president, Reagan was easily the worst.

[iceman_1960]

"Abraham Lincoln did three tours in the military, was a captain during the Black Hawk wars."
- Posted by trapbreak at 04:07 PM : Apr 01, 2008
--------------------

There was only one so called "Black Hawk War".

Lincoln DID risk his life, suppressing some disorderly riots in the early years of the National Hockey League.

For the record, the Black Hawks" fans lost to the more numerous fans of the Maple Leafs in overtime, outside the stadium.

And so ended the Black Hawk War.

[hungry1968]

Yeah and a majority of scientists that disputed Bore''''s theory were branded by the lefties as paid off by Bush. You people never tire of reversing your positions.

Posted by mudrose at 04:00 PM : Apr 01, 2008




A majority of scientists? I think you misspoke. You should have said, "Both of the scientists, hired by the big oil companies....."

[iceman_1960]

"Well, military success didn"t hurt George Washington, Andy Jackson, Abe Lincoln, Grant, Woodrow Wilson, Eisenhower, or Truman."
- trapbreak
----------------------------

Ulysses Grant made your list of "successful presidents" ?

Until George Idiot Bush came along, Grant was perhaps the worst president we ever had, and one of the most corrupt.

[hungry1968]

Abraham Lincoln did three tours in the military, was a captain during the Black Hawk wars.

Posted by trapbreak at 04:07 PM : Apr 01, 2008



I would hardly call this a military career:

"During the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln of New Salem, Illinois served three enlistments. Each enrollment lasted for approximately 30 days."

Source: http://www.geocities.com/old_lead/abe.htm

[iceman_1960]

John McCain"s military experience is nothing compared to John Murtha"s.