McCain’s housecleaning
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.
Obama should houseclean too. Get rid of the old Washinton Politics….Kennedy, Kerry,etc….
What about Cindy McCain? What about her ties to foreign investments, 527s, lobbyist, …
Why can’t a guy have views on both sides of a party line???? Typical Americans are moderate in their views, and when we get a moderate on a ticket, the wolves come out to jump on him. Typical politics. Makes it hard to vote for anyone anymore.
Obama has had it easy so far. Just go back and look at all the interviews and debates. If McCain will play as tough with him as he would if Hillary were the nominee, he’ll leave him crying in the street. It’s obvious that Obama cannot take criticism. He reacts as a child would who does not get his way. I think it’s time we get off the tight rope we’ve ALL been walking because Obama is black and plays the race card every chance he gets. The next time he yells about someone saying “black”, tell him to look in the mirror, he is black and will always be black. There’s no mention of him yelling “typical white person”, that should still be up front and center, but no, they want to keep digging up what they say was a racial remark when Clinton said that Jesse Jackson had won SC twice. I’m am sick of what this campaign has turned into. I have never missed voting since I were old enough to vote, even voted absentee when I was out of the country, however, I just don’t care if I ever vote again. Why bother, there are a few people and the media who decide who the winner is and the rest of us don’t matter. God help America, we need you so right now.
Hilary Clinton can stay in the race as long as she wants; however, the longer she stays in, she runs the risk of damaging the party and alienating voters. Hoping for the “knock-out punch” that delivers her the nomination, Hillary is grasping at anything that will allow her to grab the nomination from Obama. However, her message is not appealing to voters and no one seems to care about the rhetoric that Hillary uses against Obama or the Republicans. She can’t even get anyone to fight with her over the issues! The reality is that Hillary statistically cannot win and even counting the votes of Florida and Michigan won’t win her the superdelegate vote. Everyone is moving away from Hillary and focusing upon the developing presidential contest between Obama and McCain. Perhaps Hillary will eventually see that she has been left behind…
McCain will eventually win the Presidency if Obama is the nominee for Democrats.
It’s good to know that he is willing to cross party if needed for the benefits of all Americans!
Unlike Obama who wanted to CHANGE AMERICA but no clear plans how to do it.
FLASH NEWS!!!
- It’s very alarming to know that OBAMA will remove our Nukes.
- If he succeeds AMERICA will be vulnerable to the attack of terrorist goverment and other groups who’s goal is to destroy our country.
Is this the CHANGE Obama wants??? SCARY!!!!
No wonder he has ties and friends with people who are known terrorists and hates AMERICA.
Democrats Wake up!!!
MAYBE OBAMA SHOULD TRY THIS TOO….OH NOW WAIT, THAT WOULD MEAN HE WOULD HAVE TO GET RID OF HIS WIFE…MOST OF HIS STAFF…..GIVE BACK MOST OF HIS MONEY….. SHUT OUT HIS SUPPORTERS……………………………..
would be nice to see somebody cleanup
McCain Has to chose a woman as a running mate in order that he can get most of the Hillary Democrats.
Carl,
I agree with your assessment of the McCain housecleaning but not your assessment of his need to “tighten up”. This race is fluid and it changes every day. For instance, plans to spend the week courting conservatives were put in place before Obama became “nominee in waiting” after he blew Clinton out of North Carolina. At this point, the McCain team took a look at state by state polls and saw what most Republicans see: There is a massive gap in the Democratic Party between “Liberal Democrats (Obama)” and “New Democrats (Clinton)”. McCain changed his message to a moderate message aimed directly at Clinton’s supporters. His plan: Drive the Straight Talk Express right through the Democrats gap! Gobble up as many of Clintons loyalist as he can before Obama can redefine himself. Thus, conservative week turned into green week.
Moderate week was put in place before Obama decided to attack the President’s Isreal speach and before California decided Gay couples could get married. Now the conservative base is nice and juiced. So the Senator has pivoted to throw a little red meat and pick a fight with Obama that is over bi-lateral talks with Iran that Republicans clearly believe is to McCains advantage.
Just my take. Good blog!
Today, McCain came out fighting. Loved it. He knows how to fight and he CAN and Will beat Obama in November if he keeps talking tough and to the point the way he did today. The tide is turning.
Cinton supporters go here.
http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/discussion/
I once supported John McCain(during Bush’s first campaign for the Presidency). But I’ve become disenchanted with him in the last year. He’s not the man I once thought he was. Now I don’t know whether that’s because my first impression was incorrect or that he’s changed. Either way, I, a Republican for forty years, find myself supporting Obama. I think he’s the best chance for returning this country to the position it held in the world before Dubbya drove it over a cliff. All for monetary gain for his cronies. That’s what I believe.
House cleaning my a..!!! All the lobbyists that surround the righteous vet; you know that is bull…., so he spent his military time in a shi.hole in Viet Nam; what else has the man got to offer?
Did he take responsibility for the Lincoln Savings scam? “I was a rookie in the Senate and I knew no better.” Please the bottom 10th of his graduating class, he and Bushman belong together–led my the nose ring by the money men. The time is now, the new generation is taking over–get with it and retire the worn out ideas…!!!!! No matter what you say for try to scare the American public–we are tired and the new man on the block is OBAMA–no matter what his middle name is.
You are missing the real story, Cameron.
McCain is courting the liberal vote and it is starting a civil war in the Republican party. He can background check his campaign workers all day long, but if they work for La Raza and Reconquista movements, he’s happy to have them installed.
See Tom Cole, head of the NRCC, get spanked by conservatives at the NRCC website:
http://blog.nrcc.org/comment.cfm?entry_id=400
In a 24 hour period, an obscure blog by a RINO got almost 800 comments, only 2 of which were half-way supportive.
The only way McCain will win is for the democrats to give it to him & they are trying there best to
I feel he needs to either court independts or get rid of this democrats cause
of legalizing illegal aliens because I think that with a republican candidate this idea create a loosing fall election.
WHEN will John McCain pick MITT ROMNEY as his vice presidential running mate
THANKS
[...] Read more.. [...]
The U.S. government first listed Iran as a terrorist sponsor in 1984. How is it then, if we do not talk with terrorist or state sponsors of terrorists, that we have had talks in 2003 directed by the Bush adminstration?:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-05-21-iran-usat_x.htm
And, again in 2006:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1174358,00.html
President Bush needs to be “called” on this arguement, and exposed as the flip-flopper he is - as well as McCain.
I think McCain needs to stop trying to appeal to all side of the GOP and return to being himself. That is how he got to this point. telling it like it is, not what they want to hear. Lower the boom on obama, play hardball like he usually does.
What about McCains pastor?
McCain did the correct thing. Nonetheless, he still has the ghost of Charles Keating haunting him and may have a hard time getting some voters to forget it. Though Obama has said on more than one occasion that he does not support guilt by association (frankly, if I were Obama, I would say the same thing considering his long term relationships will Wright and Ayers), one can place a sure bet that the Obama camp will blanket the airwaves, reminding everyone of McCain’s relationship with the scoundrel of the Savings and Loan industry. Afterwards, Obama will deny any beforehand knowledge that the ad was going to be run; and he will be in “shock,” when hears about it–similar to the shock of the Police Prefect in the movie, Casablanca, after discovering that gambling is ocurring in Rick’s Cafe.
do you really think that Obama’s going to the White House?
What a scary thought! Who really know who he is?????
there’s going to be a lot of buyers regret if it happens
I want to ote for Mcain, because he is th best candidate, Hiliary would aso be better then Obama, i thik its time for allof them to pick a V.. candidate, so that the people will really know who is the best thinker, and admitsto needing help? obama, would be the worst choce in history, and mybe cause a civil war in the US.
This isn’t change, just more of the McSame
http://www.changeyoudeserve.wordpress.com
where is Vicki iseman? if we are vetting presidential candidates, where is vickki iseman? we need a megan alert posted on the freeways. it was created to find missing young white girl’s. Vicki Iseman is the only single blonde white women to disappear off the face of the planet. no interviews, no Q&A about her relationship with Senator McCain. nancy grace made career 24/7 365 days about a missing blonde teenager in aruba and no one in the media has followed up with the vicki iseman story. she is/was a lobbyist and if the senator is jettisoning lobbyist we the voters need to know more.
Sen. John McCain secured millions in federal funds for a land acquisition program that provided a windfall for an Arizona developer whose executives were major campaign donors, public records show.
McCain, who has made fighting special-interest projects a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, inserted $14.3 million in a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base in a provision sought by SunCor Development, the largest of about 50 landowners near the base. SunCor representatives, upset with a state law that restricted development around Luke, met with McCain’s staff to lobby for funding, according to John Ogden, SunCor’s president at the time.
The Air Force later paid SunCor $3 million for 122 acres near the base. It was the highest single land transaction of the private lots purchased by the government — three times the county’s assessed value and twice the military’s estimated value. SunCor also donated another 122 acres. Alan Bunnell, a spokesman for SunCor’s parent company, Pinnacle West Capital, said the donation was meant to minimize the company’s tax bill and enhance the value of adjacent property it owns.
ROGER
YOUR CCOMMENT I MUST SAY IS A LITTLE NAIVE AND I THINK THE MODERATOR SHOULD BE PUBLISHING COMMENTS THAT HAVE SUBSTANCE AND CARRY SOME MERIT. OR COMMON SENSE AT LEAST
If you want 4 more years of Jimmy Carter vote for Obama.