Much earlier in the campaign, John McCain would spoil Mitt Romney’s events (here and here). Now, I wonder if Romney is doing it to McCain. Two weeks ago, McCain announced three policy speeches. Last week was Iraq. Today is the economic. Later on, there will be domestic policy. So, last Read more…
Yesterday and today (in response to Andrew Sullivan), Hotline’s Marc Ambinder pointed out that Rudy Giuliani is, perhaps, making a dodge on a variety of issues by invoking federalism. In essence, Marc’s position is: By not saying something like I think the flag is divisive, and I don’t like it. Read more…
Sam Brownback got $2m. That’s 4x Mike Huckabee. That’s good for him. John McCain got $12.5m. Not so good… He is expected to have a high burn rate. What’s the COH? Read the statement for a little self-flagellation.. All in all, Mitt Romney won the day.
Update: Romney loaned himself a big chunk of change… Mitt Romney posted $23m raised. Hotline has the story: Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney raised $23M this quarter, more than enough to top the field of Republican contenders. That Romney was able to squeeze so many low hanging fruit sources in what Read more…
Today Jack Murtha called for a draft again. Last weekend in New Hampshire, John McCain gave an articulate defense of the all volunteer force and service, but pointed out the insanity of a draft: There is a bunch more video in there on the military, service, and similar issues. Just Read more…
I meant to write about this but got distracted. Dan Gerstein has, I think, the proper rebuttal to the guys at the Politico. Perhaps the GOP bad poll numbers are just about Bush? And the correction to Bush lies with a Rudy Giuliani or John McCain, wo fairly different approaches.
Jonathan Martin has a point… Meanwhile one of the Arizona Republic’s blogs is playing interference for McCain…
The Hill says that John McCain considered leaving the GOP. Actually, it appears that it was Daschle who said it. I think that Powerline got it right:
My guess is that after the 2000 election, McCain was understandably at odds with President Bush; like most Senators, he has friends on the other side of the aisle and probably did grumble to them about the Bush administration. In early 2001, the Democrats were desperate to convince a Republican to change parties, and McCain, as the loser to Bush in the 2000 primaries, was a natural choice.
I have two meta-comments. First, I thought this story would get more legs. Not because it is a good story — it is poorly sourced — but because the conservative blogs are supposed to hate John McCain. How have they come down so far? Power Line, Hot Air, Captain’s Quarters, Influence Peddler, Brainster, and David Brody have all come out saying, "no story here." Some have come out more negative: Mitt Romney’s former driver at TownHall, Outside The Beltway, QandO, and Ace of Spades have been more negative. That’s a pretty good day for John McCain on this story.
Perhaps most telling is that Drudge, who hates McCain, has not posted on it at all… Read some more excerpts and thoughts after the jump
Today, The Fix said this about John McCain: These numbers suggest that McCain’s best route to winning the GOP nomination is to focus heavily on his years of on-the-job training to be president — from his military service to his years in Congress to his run for president in 2000. Read more…
I just got off a blogger conference call with John McCain. I bunch of people asked questions including Rob Bluey, Phil Klein and Jim Antle from the American Spectator, Green Mountain Politics, Doug from Granite Grok, someone from Wizbang, Ryan Sager, and others. I don’t want to recount the conference Read more…