Mark McKinnon, staffer, advisor and a well-known fixture on the McCain campaign trail, last year said he would leave the McCain campaign if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination. He said at the time he did not want to work on a campaign against Obama. McKinnon, today, sent out an email saying he would be stepping down.
McKinnon, and most everyone else in the McCain camp, concluded Clinton lost more than a month ago.
The long time Austin, Texas based Democratic ad man, media strategist and campaign consultant rose to national prominence as an original Bush 2000 insider with then Governor George W. Bush’s start-up team.
In announcing his decision, he tossed out all the one-liners you would expect from a committed McCain supporter in an email this afternoon.
He is still a “1,000 percent McCain man. Just Going off the ad team.”
McKinnon says he is going from linebacker to head cheerleader and he’ll “still be showing up occasionally in my lucky hat.”
The campaign let it be known about a month ago that a top notch team of about half dozen people had been assembled to steer McCain’s media message.
McKinnon’s a Democrat, and will remain loyal to McCain from the sidelines…but will not work against Obama. It’s just that simple.
It’s primary night in Kentucky and Oregon, Major reports on the expected outcome. Carl is in Florida where McCain continued to charge the Democratic frontrunner is weak on foreign policy.
Obama calls criticism of spouses unfair, HRC says she will continue until there is a nominee, Major reports. Carl follows McCain as he accuses Obama of foreign policy inexperience.
Major reports on Obama’s aggressive linking of McCain to the Bush administration’s foreign policy. Carl is with Republican hopeful, John McCain as he addresses the NRA convention in Louisville, Ky.
As McCain campaign manager, Rick Davis, collects questionaires from campaign staffers about their past lobbying and political activity it’s important to remember what happened to the McCain campaign last year.
McCain’s bloated 2007 campaign imploded after spending huge amounts of money and nose-diving in the polls.
Davis, last June and July, cut most people loose and put a skeleton crew together of people willing and able to work for free. This meant he needed volunteers with separate incomes- some were lobbyists and political professionals with histories.
Campaigns routinely let people go when their outside pursuits conflict with the candidate’s desired image.
That is what the McCain camp is checking for now.
The revelation that two McCain aides had ties to the military Junta in Myanmar sparked this house cleaning; they are no longer with the campaign. A third aide, Craig Shirley, who’d been involved in an anti-Obama 527 has now also been moved on.
It was overdue, not so much for any one individual to go, but for the campaign to KNOW what they had been involved in.
There is still a haphazard feel to much of what the McCain campaign does.
While they have plans, tactics and a strategy, there are bugs in the system that often complicate the message.
Two weeks ago McCain was planning a theme of courting conservatives and intended to highlight judicial conservatism.
The week started with Cinco de Mayo, so he instead found himself starting a “conservative week” pitching comprehensive immigration reform, opposed by most conservatives as amnesty for illegal aliens.
This week was supposed to court independents and moderates with his anti-global warming agenda…he ends the week at the NRA convention talking gun rights, a conservative favorite.
The conflicting messages and events are a temporary glitch of the last 2 weeks which illustrates how some events and devlopments are reacted to by the McCain campaign rather than managed and massaged.
The staff housecleaning is not a big deal - beyond it’s timing.
It should have happened a long time ago.
The McCain campaign needs to tighten up fast.
Obama is gonna come out of his corner in top flight fighting condition with a battle tested and fleet-of-foot team.
McCain’s got a strong team and strong campaign plan. But this type of inside baseball staff problem illustrates that it is not yet exactly firing on all 12 cylinders.
He has had more than two months without a GOP rival, to get things in order…crunch time has arrived.
McCain laid it all out today in a broad reaching speech on how he saw the world after four years of his administration.
It was a little prospective retrospection, fast-forwarding to 2013 in order to look back on his first four years in the White House. He painted a pretty picture!
Major reports on top Dems coming out in support of Obama after President Bush suggested he was an “appeaser”. Carl Cameron outlines John McCain’s expansive vision of American after four years of a McCain presidency.
John McCain came to Columbus, Ohio to outline his vision of America and the world after four years of his presidency. His campaign also launched a new web ad highlighting that expansive vision of:
The Middle East stabilized.
Nuclear terror threat reduced.
Border security strengthened.
Energy independence advanced.
Wasteful spending reformed.
Health care choice delivered.
Economic confidence restored.
“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won.”
Internationally, McCain boldly predicts Al Qaeda in Iraq will have been defeated, Afghanistan will ALSO be stabilized and NO Major attack will have occured in the US since 9-11. He forecasts stunning diplomatic successes negotiating the elimination of stubborn rogue nuclear threats that have for yrs been unresolvable.
“Concerted action by the great democracies of the world has persuaded a reluctant Russia and China to cooperate in pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and North Korea to discontinue its own.”
McCains economic forecast is all sunny skies too. He assumes implementation of aggressive tax and spending cuts and that congress will have adopted his domestic agenda.
“The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth, and Americans again have confidence in their economic future.”
While Obama advocates hope, McCain predicts triumph: ever expanding global free trade will have made up for US job losses in manufacturing and other sectors
“New free trade agreements have been ratified and led to substantial increases in both exports and imports.”
McCain assumes cooperation with congress…on a host of long deadlocked issues, energy independence, revamping the tax code, public education, healthcare, medicare, even Social security.
“The reforms include some form of personal retirement accounts in safe and reliable index funds, such as have been available to government employees since their retirement plans were made solvent a quarter century ago.
Despite ardent opposition from his own party NOW to what many call amnesty for illegal immigrants McCain anticipates victory on comprehensive immigration reform which would include provisions for a guest worker program.
“the American people accepted the practical necessity to institute a temporary worker program and deal humanely with the millions of immigrants who have been in this country illegally. “
Only toward the end of his remarks does McCain acknowledge political opposition and how unlikely such wholesale success will be…he blames it on partisanship and the seemingly unending election cycle.
“This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries. We are rivals for the same power. But we are also compatriots. “
This almost idealistic and hopeful tone is sure to draw sharp reaction from the Dems!
Major Garrett reports on the Democratic race on the day of the W.Va primary, Carl is in North Bend, Wa and follows McCain’s second day of the “global climate change” tour.
Major is in West Virginia following the Dem’s race on the eve of the primary there and Carl is in Portland, Oregon as McCain unveils his plan to tackle Global Climate Change.
Israel Battered by Rockets From Lebanon and Gaza As many as five rockets fired from Lebanon exploded in northern Israel on Thursday, the first since the Jewish state launched an offensive in Gaza two weeks ago, prompting Israel to return fire.
U.S. Job Losses in Dec. Could Be Worst in 60 Years U.S. job losses in December could be the worst in almost 60 years as companies scramble to cut costs even deeper to survive the country’s economic and financial storms.
Burris Faces Grilling by Ill. Panel Lawmakers to question Burris about why he accepted a position from Blagojevich, if he promised anything in return
Pakistan Fires National Security Advisor Pakistan fired the national security adviser hours after Indian media quoted him as saying the surviving Mumbai attacker was Pakistani.
N.Y. Man Demands $1.5M From Wife for Kidney A New York doctor who gave his wife a kidney is suing her for $1.5 million or the return of the vital organ after he says she cheated on him with a physical therapist.
