GOP Spring Training
By Steve Chaggaris of the CBS News Washington bureau.
This weekend's Republican straw poll that had political junkies and reporters itching for an early indicator as to which potential 2008 GOP presidential candidates they should keep their eyes on, delivered some interesting results Saturday night in Memphis.
If the Southern Republican Leadership Conference poll's final tally actually means anything, then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is the frontrunner for his party's 2008 presidential nomination.
But ask most of the other likely candidates and they'll tell you that the poll was nothing more than a beauty contest that favored Tennessee favorite son Frist won.
What turned out to be shocking is who came in second and third as well as Arizona Sen. John McCain's dubious strategy to divert attention from himself by urging voters to write-in President Bush as a show of support for the embattled commander-in-chief.
Not surprisingly, Frist took first place with 37 percent. Coming in second with 14.4 percent was Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has no southern base and some political observers think will have trouble courting evangelical conservatives because of his Mormon faith.
Tied for third with 10.3 percent were Virginia Sen. George Allen and McCain's suggested write-in campaign for President Bush. McCain, who is considered to be the front-runner of the undeclared candidates, received 4.6 percent of the vote.
While on the surface it looks like McCain took a big hit, his supporters are sure to point out that if you added up McCain's figure with the Bush write-in campaign he was behind and he would have edged Romney for second with 14.9 percent.
The Straw Poll Caper
Within the first half-hour of the opening session on Friday, McCain's operatives were eager to leak excerpts from their man's speech in which he'd call for a friendly disruption of the straw poll. Questions about McCain's motives were immediately raised as the chatter was whether he was attempting to head off a loss to Tennessee's Frist, who would be playing to his home state at the Memphis event.
Saying that Republicans "have bigger things to worry about," McCain implored, "If any friends here are thinking of voting for me, please don't. Just write in President Bush's name.
"For the next three years, with our country at war, he's our president and the only one who needs our support today."
He also repeated what seemed turned out to be the refrain of the weekend: Republicans need to worry about winning this November before they start looking at 2008.
"Our most immediate political priority isn't the '08 presidential race it's the '06 mid-term elections and we've got to do it and we've got to win," McCain said.
Almost like they were speaking from talking points, Sen. Trent Lott, Gov. Haley Barbour and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman were among those who repeated virtually the same thing.
And so did potential candidate Allen, who truly means it. He's up for re-election this November.
"We ought to be paying attention to the elections this year," Allen told reporters after his Saturday speech.
But there was one presidential wannabe who was not buying into the party line and he wasn't afraid to say it. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee candidly called it "disingenuous" for others to act as if the weekend wasn't at all about 2008.
During his speech Huckabee remarked that he felt he was "supposed to convince you that not a single person on this program has any interest beyond the 2006 election and we're focused solely and only on that and nobody at all is thinking about 2008.
"And we don't know why in the world anybody is already going to New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina right now."
Even if the straw poll results turned out to be less of a barometer than originally thought, the event offered the six potential candidates to address the GOP faithful, testing speeches and themes for the future, as well as trying to convince political insiders of their viability as candidates.
The Speeches
Each of the six, Allen, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, Frist, Huckabee, McCain, Romney, touched on standard Republican "red meat" issues: anti-abortion, lower taxes, reforming Social Security and Medicare. Declaring their support for the war on terror and the war in Iraq gave the speeches a pro-Bush pep rally feel.
And each had their moments that stood out, for instance, McCain's discussion of the Jack Abramoff scandal and his fiery current events note, calling out Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer on his Dubai ports-related amendment to the lobbying reform bill, which brought debate to a standstill last week.
"If we don't get reform, you can put the responsibility for it right at the doorstep of the Democrats in the United States Senate," McCain said to a chorus of cheers.
Other notable moments from the possible contenders:
Interestingly, Allen seemed to be on a dual track with his speech: he reminded people that he's running for re-election this year by talking about his upcoming legislative plans while laying the groundwork for a potential candidacy by highlighting his successes, especially during his tenure as governor of Virginia.
"Deep down in the heart of America people still believe that the country was better with 'Leave it to Beaver' than 'Beavis and Butthead,'" Huckabee said. "And we were better off in those days when the Gideons gave bibles to the fifth graders instead of school nurses giving condoms to the sixth graders."
Perhaps the biggest applause line for Huckabee came when he went after the Democrats' criticism of the president's handling of the war on terror and the war in Iraq.
"I'd still rather us be fighting that battle in Baghdad rather than Boston any day of the week," declared Huckabee, referring to the heavily Democratic workplace of his likely GOP rival Romney.
If nothing else, Brownback, the self-described "Ronald Reagan Republican," at least set the record at the conference for uttering the late president's last name 10 times in the first three minutes of his speech.
Brownback focused mainly on the core Republican social issues, especially abortion, which he touched on several times. At one point he compared the accomplishments of "today's pro-life movement" to "the Greatest Generation or the end of fascism or the civil rights movement."
What This All Means
In the grand scheme of things, Saturday's straw poll probably means very little except to those who performed better or worse than expected.
Frist was expected to do well and was playing this not to lose, as anything but a first place finish in his home state would have been an embarrassment. Romney is sure to garner a some buzz as not many expected a northern, fairly unknown nationally, governor to take second place. And Allen's third-place finish will give him a early boost as someone who could possibly be a viable candidate.
Despite most of the presidential contenders' efforts to try to divert attention away from 2008, the event did serve its purpose as one of the first warm-ups for the Republican presidential race by allowing the faithful -- and the political junkies -- to witness first-hand some of the wannabes as they dipped their toes in the presidential waters.
"It's spring training," beamed Tom Rath, a Republican National Committeeman from New Hampshire.
And since it's extremely early in spring training, nobody has been kicked off the team yet.
By Steve Chaggaris