May 22, 2008
McCain Campaign Concerns Some Republicans
Politico: Rising Worries GOP Candidate Will Be Outgunned On Money, Organization And Intensity In The General Election
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After making a promising debut as their nominee, John McCain has worried many Republicans in recent weeks. (AP)
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John McCain
Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
Once optimistic about Sen. John McCain’s prospects for the fall general election, Republicans are increasingly concerned that he could wind up badly outgunned, saddled with serious deficiencies in money, organization and partisan intensity against the likely Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
After making a promising debut as their nominee, McCain has worried many Republicans by seeming to flounder during the past few weeks.
The campaign recently has been rattled by fallout from McCain’s determination to purge his campaign of lobbying conflicts. The departure of five staff members has provided ammunition to Democrats and produced a snarl of damaging news coverage questioning McCain’s reformist image.
It’s a troubling development, for when Obama likely finally captures the nomination and begins to consolidate his party, there’s yet another matter for Republicans to lose sleep over-the polling bump the Democrat is expected to receive.
Operatives and GOP officials around the country acknowledge Obama’s commanding financial and organizational advantage as the general election begins to take shape, noting that he benefits from both the toxic climate for the GOP and a lengthy primary that has enabled him to build an organization in every state in America.
“He spent over $5 million on TV,” said Mark Jefferson, Wisconsin's Republican party executive director, referring to Obama’s ad buy in the hotly contested Badger State primary in February. “McCain spent $180,000. And [Obama’s] got far more ground troops.”
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), an early McCain backer in the primary, called the Obama juggernaut “a formidable thing to deal with.”
“Clearly, Republicans are going to have to do a fantastic job of turnout programs and probably have to focus more on conservative Democrats and independents than on Republicans,” Burr said. Of the McCain operation, he said: “They’re doing more things right than they are wrong.”
Still, some see the McCain campaign as a pale imitation of the well-financed Bush campaigns, both models of precision and ruthless efficiency.
McCain’s effort inevitably suffers by comparison, since it’s easy to forget that the last Republican campaign was a presidential reelection model built over a four-year span. Like an older brother who was a star quarterback, Bush-Cheney ’04 was a state-of-the-art, $300-million wonder that was bound to make any successor look primitive by comparison.
Indeed, Republicans now fret that at the very time they expect to face an opponent who has generated record participation and enthusiasm, they are going into battle with a campaign whose mechanics are a generation behind-a pager measured against an iPhone.
“The mechanics, the ground game costs money,” said Alex Gage, a political consultant who was the Bush-Cheney campaign’s micro-targeting guru from 2004. “And the mechanics are going to be a huge problem.”
It’s a problem drawing notice far beyond the Beltway.
“There is certainly no staff presence,” said Doug Badger, an Oregon GOP strategist who ran the Bush-Cheney campaign in the state four years ago. “I assume he’ll pretty much run an air campaign and rely on the party to do the grassroots. We had six paid Bush campaign staff on the ground on March 1st of ’04. Money is a big part of that.”
Justin Sayfie, a top fundraising bundler in Florida both for President Bush and his brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said McCain campaign's grassroots and finance organization in his state “is still a work in progress and doesn't yet match the formidable Bush-Cheney '04 organization in the state.”
Another prominent Republican who has worked at the highest levels of GOP politics concedes: “There’s no question that the McCain efort lacks the sophistication of the last couple of cycles.”
Steve Schmidt, a senior adviser to McCain, rejected the comparison, saying that the “nature of the campaign is different” since the last one was built by an incumbent president.
“But we believe that we’ll run as sophisticated a campaign as has ever been in the history of presidential politics,” Schmidt said. “There’s been refinements in techniques and technology that will allow us to target voters to get out the vote and we’ll take full advantage of all of them.”
Far from giving up on McCain, Bush-Cheney veterans remain convinced that his independence and war-hero’s stature make him the one Republican with a prayer of retaining the White House in the worst political environment since Watergate.
“For Oregon, he’s clearly the best candidate that Republicans could nominate,” observed Badger.
These Republicans are encouraged by McCain’s unique strengths as a candidate and by Obama’s distinctive vulnerabilities.
“The generic ballot isn’t favorable to Republicans but we’re buoyed by the fact that McCain has a lot of appeal to moderates and Reagan Democrats,” said Jefferson.
Burr contends that McCain has an appeal to swing voters unlike any other candidate in recent political history.
Moreover, they say, Obama is a candidate who faces real problems uniting the Democratic coalition, let alone bringing over swing voters.
In Florida alone, Sayfie notes, Obama faces three potentially skeptical voting blocs: Cuban-Americans, Jews and culturally conservative Democrats in the central and northern part of the state.
At the same time, few Republicans dismiss the juggernaut they’ll soon face and all recognize that McCain needs to execute better to be competitive in this environment. Habits ingrained in a once-insurgent campaign-one that only months ago had a staff one-eighth the size of Obama’s-will need to be broken.
After his near-meltdown last summer, McCain has kept counsel with a tight-knit and small inner circle - an insularity that causes chafing among some Republicans on the outside.
But he has taken some steps to bring on additional hands. Two veterans of the Bush-Cheney campaign, Nicolle Wallace and Matthew McDonald, have been recently brought on to lend a hand with communications.
And, even though there is resistance to it among some in McCain’s inner circle, strategist Mike Murphy may play a role beyond the informal conversations he has with the candidate now.
Schmidt said campaign officials “feel very good” about the political support from a unified Republican Party, plus some Democrats and independents; the fundraising plan; and the structure they’re building for turning out the vote.
“We are pleased with where we are in the race,” Schmidt said. “We expect a close election. We expect that whoever the Democratic nominee is, they’ll bump up in the polls, we’ll go down. And then we’ll begin to close the gap again by the time we get to the conventions [in late summer]. There is a long way to go in this race, and we’ll compete hard.”
Schmidt also gave a preview of what Republicans believe will be their ace in the hole -- the tough campaign McCain would run against Obama, calling the first-term senator’s foreign policy “reckless” and “dangerous,” and charging that he “is gifted with flowery rhetoric, but devoid of the record of action that’s necessary to change America in the right direction.”
McCain officials also believe the lobbying brouhaha will pass quickly.
"Reality matters," Schmidt said. "Senator McCain has the most restrictive policy in the history of presidential campaigns when it comes to lobbyists working on the campaign."
Much of the stress on the McCain campaign stems from the fact that it had to blossom almost overnight from a one-state-at-a-time crusade to a national campaign - a daunting exercise under even the best of conditions.
Beyond reassuring hard-right conservatives that they should pour their sweat into the campaign, McCain now must convince a broad swath of potential donors and allies that he is prepared and resilient enough to have a reasonable chance of winning on Nov. 4.
“The challenge of the campaign is to make sure that the American people know who John McCain is from A to Z-that they understand the strength of his character, the depth of his experience, his readiness, his preparedness, his courage,” Schmidt said. “Most Americans aren’t staring at the cable news networks, with three TVs in their living room or their office.”
Such optimism aside, Obama’s organizational strength remains a daunting prospect for the beleaguered Republicans. Floyd Ciruli, an independent pollster in Colorado, notes that 10,000 Democrats showed up last weekend for a mostly ceremonial state convention.
“They usually don’t get more than two or three thousand,” Ciruli said. “Whether he can get them out at the precinct by precinct level is to be determined, but he’s got boots on the ground here. There are literally thousands and thousands of people who are prepared to work for him.”
Still, some Republicans note in key states the combination of McCain’s independent streak and the fissures in the Democratic party made plain during the primary will compensate for the GOP malaise and lack of enthusiasm for their nominee.
“McCain will run very well among independents here,” predicts Tom Rath, a veteran New Hampshire GOP strategist. “It’s harder for Democrats to make McCain seem like Bush.”
By Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen
Copyright 2008 POLITICO
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See all 143 CommentsMcSame has tied his political fortunes to the failed policies of a failed President.
Goodbye neocons.
lol!
You can argue for or against Obama, but you can''t deny that a lot of young people who didn''t give a c r a p about politics previously are interested in him. Whether you think he deserves that interest ot not is immaterial, it is what it is.
6 advisors/lobbyist have resigned from the NcBush, ooops sorry, McCain''s presidential campaign in the last 2 months.
Thank you Senator McCain for being a bold decision maker who after talking the talk is now willing to take the first steps in walking the walk.
I%u2019m obliged to give him full credit for a rousing refocus to help keep citizens and voters on target to demand all candidates open up and take steps toward better public scrutiny in politics. Already a party nominee McCain could have misdirected our attention elsewhere, but he didn%u2019t.
Public scrutiny in all things political must be the new political correctness battle cry craze to sweep this nation. Change can only happen from candidates or incumbents who are in the game.
Desirability of any candidate from any party that executes actions vs words toward invigorating a lobbyist purge or ethics code on the right road.
Paid professional career lobbyists are eroding and weakening the by now fading influence of voters and ordinary citizens.
Any action by any candidate from any party who takes on the responsibility of holding anyone to account and by putting into practice any good ethics is worthy of praise for the greater political good which transcends all parties.
Posted by jack3213 at 02:13 PM : May 22, 2008
*** I hope he doesn''t do fine! Do you really want to have to learn to speak spanish! Juan Amnesty Mccain voted 2 years ago in the senate to give 12 million illegals amnesty overnight, without making them learn English or paying a fine! Then it would have let 5 million more every year come in from mexico! Is that really want you want from a president??? I''m moving overseas if Amnesty Mccain wins this election! And then death to the American hypocrites! Lets send troops to Iraq for a hundred years, while letting a hundred million mexicans take over our country.....
lol!
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Posted by singingrick
I love these posts that imply people will simply disappear if a certain candidate doesn''t win. Newsflash. Whom ever wins is going to be president of...get ready...EVERYONE. They aren''t going to disappear just because their party candidate didn''t win...and in fact...will have a voice throughout the term. Grow up and act like you have some degree of intelligence about this whole process...please.
McSame has tied his political future to the failed policies of a failed President who has no political future.
lol!
likeitis5050
Reality check:
You don''t have to disappear to become politically irrelevant. You just have to screw things up really badly. Congratulations and goodbye neocon.
lol!
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Posted by gopsoccermom at 02:28 PM : May 22, 2008
I don''t doubt it. Most of the pin wearers were Bush supporters who sat quietly and obediantly while Bush set about destroying our country. It''s really sad, wearing a pin is your proof of patroitism.
Posted by likeitis5050 at 02:35 PM : May 22, 2008
*** Exactly! He is more liberal than democrats on the most important issue... immigration. If we have too many immigrants, we will lose jobs to them! If you can''t work, you can''t live, and then no matter what a president does it wouldn''t matter. How could the republicans have a candidate that voted to give amnesty to over 12 million illegals, and then open up the boarders to 5 million more per year allowed to legally come it??? I''m all for a deal on immigration, like if 5 million get amnesty, the other 7 million would have to go back! But what "Republican" would let all 12 million stay! I''m all for being charitable, but 12 million is a little too many! We have to think about Americans first, not mexicans! That is why I hate Amnesty Juan Mccain! I''ll vote for Obama, not because I like Obama, but because I HATE Juan Mccain!
The swing voters are very unhappy you to stupid moron that is why we keep voting against your group.
We told you to change direction in 2006 by putting the Democrats in power of congress but instead of jumping you hunkered down and told us you were the deciders. Well, we the people are the deciders and now it is not about politics it is about who decides the fate of the country the voters or a political party.
Congress will fall even more because you morons refused to listen.
Posted by beader59 at 02:34 PM : May 22, 2008
** His love of illegal immigrants is what concerns me!
We told you to change direction in 2006 by putting the Democrats in power of congress but instead of jumping you hunkered down and told us you were the deciders. Well, we the people are the deciders and now it is not about politics it is about who decides the fate of the country the voters or a political party.
Congress will fall even more because you morons refused to listen.
Posted by antoniof123 at 02:43 PM : May 22, 2008
*** Excatly! It will be great to see the look on people''s faces when we finally have a democrat in the white house again. We warned them in 2006, now they want to get totally voted out of power. The least they could have done for our support is atleast get stronger against illegals getting amnesty, but know, thats the one subject they went liberal on! I hate Amnesty! I hate Amnesty Juan Mccain!
His Name is Not ''Bobby'', all you Obama Haters, have a Field Day on that, as well as him being (Hindu).
When Barack was called Barry, it was a Big A!! Deal...
Please let McCain choose Bobby Jindal, so the Republican Party, can See, its own Bias''s & Predjudices.
Just think, if McCain does Win this year, an his (71 Yr Old) A!! Falls Ill...
Piyush ''Bobby'' Jindal will be Your Next President.
Boy, would that be Political & Poetic Justice...
To You Racist A!! Holes !!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob...ki/ Bobby_Jindal
According to Family Lore, Jindal (ADOPTED) the name "Bobby" after watching The Brady Bunch television program at age four.
He has been known by that NAME ever since.
Though Legally his Name Remains (Piyush Jindal).
Gov. Jindal with First Lady Supriya Jindal and son Shaan Jindal was a (Hindu), but Converted to Catholicism in High School.
He has also offered Testimony[clarify] before Baptist and Pentecostal congregations since the beginning of the 2007 campaign season.
Afterwards, he received a Masters Degree in political science from New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.
While at Oxford, he wrote an article for the New Oxford Review in which he described witnessing a friend being possessed by a demon.
Contrary to Indian tradition, their names do not carry the fathers ethnic title ''Jindal''.
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (born June 10, 1971) is a Republican Politician, and the current Governor of the U.S. state of Louisiana.
Before his election as governor, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana''s 1st congressional district.
Jindal was Re-Elected to Congress in the 2006 election with 88 percent of the vote. Jindal was the second Indian-American to serve in Congress.
On October 20, 2007, Jindal was elected governor of Louisiana, winning a four-way race with 54% of the vote.
Since Barack Obama is Supposedly (In-Experienced)
What about a (36 yr Old Man) as (R-VP)Running Mate..Hmmmm
Note #1: At age 36, Jindal became the youngest current governor in the United States.
Note #2: He also became the first person of color to serve as governor of Louisiana since Reconstruction, the first elected Indian-American governor in U.S. history.
He was chosen by Scholastic Update magazine as "one of America''''s top 10 extraordinary young people for the next millennium."
He was India Abroad Person of the Year in 2005.
Big A$$ Note: Conservative Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has Described Jindal as "The Next Ronald Reagan."
Rush Limbaugh, Described (Piyush Jindal) as the Next (Mr.666) ..Ron-ald Wil-son Rea-gan, Himself...What a Compliment !!
R R O O N N N P P A A U U L
R R O O N N N P P A A U U L
RRRR O 0 N N N PPPP AAAAAA U U L
R R O O N NN P A A U U L
R R OO N N P A A UUU LLLLL
What McCain needs to do is simply fight fire with fire. Since Obama''s mantra is "change", McCain simply needs to make sure that everyone knows that BOTH candidates represent change. The difference, of course, is that while Obama represents "Dangerous, Radical Change", a McCain Presidency promises "Safe, Wise, Incremental Change". I think McCain''s mantra should be "I will bring SAFE and WISE Change to America. Obama''s brand of change would dangerously weaken and could ultimately destroy us".
Can anyone seriously doubt this truth once they peek behind Obama''s shiny facade?
Abuses by the very organization supposedly given to protect them: stolen trust money, stolen lands, displaced people and casual government and corporate indifference. In Nevada, thousands of native Arizona Dineh-Navajo elders died, many were forced to relocate to a Nuclear Spill site, church''s Hill, where double the national average birth defect rate is found among newborns... Who''s behind these horrifying events?
Press blackouts issued by McCain/Rockefeller/Kennedy interests at Peabody Group since 1987 have prevented the American Public from learning of the enormous international hue and cry for justice regarding the deprivation of Human and Civil Rights being committed by McCain, his fellow Senators Kerry and Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Peabody Western, against the Di''neh Navajo in Arizona. And now it has invaded the electoral process.
http://acsa.net/cain2004.org/?gclid=CJeu
m47l-pICFQ-WGgodriWUGQ
Wow! That sounds like a vast left-wing and moderate-wing conspiracy to me! Better not let Hillary hear about that lest she become even more paranoid than she is already about vast winged conspiracies!
They watched Hillary go down in flames while squawking "experience, experience" and this is the GOP secret weapon against Obama? Most people have come to learn that "political experience" is code for lining your and your cronies pockets, they have seen and had enough of it.
Despite his call for the U.S. to win the "hearts and minds of the Islamic world," Sen. John McCain recruited the support of an evangelical minister who describes Islam as "anti-Christ" and Mohammed as "the mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil."
McCain sought the support of Pastor Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio at a critical time in his campaign in February, when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was continuing to draw substantial support from the Christian right.
Rove served with subpoena
Posted: 02:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) %u2014 The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday served a subpoena on former top Bush aide Karl Rove, the committee announced.
Filed under: Karl Rove
Pastor John Hagee said on Thursday that his controversial sermon, in which he said Hitler was fulfilling God''s will for a state of Israel, had been "intentionally mischaracterized" and constituted a "gross example of bias." In a statement to The Huffington Post, he did not apologize for or distance himself from the sermon, saying simply that he had long grappled with how God "who controls what happens here on earth" could allow the Holocaust.
"To assert that I in any way condone the Holocaust or that monster Adolf Hitler is the biggest and ugliest of lies," Hagee wrote. "I have always condemned the horrors of the Holocaust in the strongest of terms. But even more importantly, my abhorrence of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism has never stopped with mere words."
Senate Republicans have broken with President Bush to help Democrats add support for veterans and the unemployed to a bill paying for another year of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
The 75-22 vote also added billions of dollars in other domestic funds such as heating subsidies for the poor and money for fighting wildfires to the $165 billion for the military operations overseas.
...The huge tally in the Senate was driven by $15.6 billion over two years to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and more than $50 billion over the upcoming decade to provide returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.
Both Sens. Obama and Clinton voted in favor of the bill. Sen. McCain skipped the vote (as did Sens. Tom Coburn and Ted Kennedy).
Rush Limbaugh, Described (Piyush Jindal) as the Next (Mr.666) ..Ron-ald Wil-son Rea-gan, Himself...What a Compliment !!
Is this a coplimemt? I do not think so.
Reagan policies is the main reason we are facing energy crisis today - He killed Carter''s energy plan and introduce SUVs.
Reagan''s economic policies were very short sited - lead to an economic boom during his time but evaporated as soon as Bush Sr. came to power(made him a one timer, fortunately clinton was rescued by the computer boom)
Nice post!
GENOCIDE committed against a gentle people: the from Massachusetts, and Senator Rockefeller from West Virginia coal mining country, attains profits through massive business gained by McCain''s Wife and her Alcoholic Beverage Distribution business. McCain is backed by the very Nevada casinos and energy companies, who stand to gain the most from the Coal stolen from the Indians: money that fuels McCain''s campaign chest the excess of which he can pocket after every Campaign ends comes to him through street names in Nevada, according to Common Cause, a vastly well regarded public watchdog agency.
Abuses by the very organization supposedly given to protect them: stolen trust money, stolen lands, displaced people and casual government and corporate indifference. In Nevada, thousands of native Arizona Dineh-Navajo elders died, many were forced to
Press blackouts issued by McCain/Rockefeller/Kennedy interests at Peabody Group since 1987 have prevented the American Public from learning of the enormous international hue and cry for justice regarding the deprivation of Human and Civil Rights being committed by McCain, his fellow Senators Kerry and Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Peabody Western, against the Di''neh Navajo in Arizona. And now it has invaded the electoral process.
THIS IS THE SITE
http://acsa.net/cain2004.org/?gclid=CJeu
m47l-pICFQ-WGgodriWUGQ
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Posted by aldon61 at 03:50 PM : May 22, 2008
report abuse
You are so right! He once was a man of honor, now he''s just like Bush, owned lock stock and barrel!
Posted by makeitso928 at 03:35 PM : May 22, 2008
Yeah and we know who spoon fed Obama for the last 20 years...don''t we? You know all your outrageous statements about McCain...guess what it don''t "makeitso" sweetie....gossip is gossip...but nice try.
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