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The American Politics: The Post-Rovian World
Shinto
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McCain campaign suffers key shakeups
Adios, angry grandpa.
WASHINGTON - John McCain's campaign manager and chief strategist quit the campaign Tuesday in a major staff shake-up for the struggling Republican presidential candidate who is all but broke and trails in opinion polls.
In a statement, the Arizona senator said Terry Nelson and John Weaver offered their resignations, "which I accepted with regret and deep gratitude for their dedication, hard work and friendship."
Nelson, a veteran of President Bush's successful 2004 re-election effort, said he stepped down as campaign manager and Weaver, a longtime aide who ran McCain's failed 2000 presidential bid, said he left his post of chief strategist. Both resignations were effective immediately.
Other officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid discussing private conversations, said Nelson was fired. But several people close to Nelson disputed that characterization.
Two officials said Rick Davis, a longtime aide to McCain, will take over the campaign and that other changes also were likely.
The shakeup is the second in a week. It comes just six months before the first voting in Iowa and as McCain, once considered the front-runner, seeks to regain some momentum with a diminishing list of options to lift his candidacy.
McCain's fortunes soured considerably this year as he embraced President Bush's troop increase for the Iraq war, an unpopular conflict with the public but one supported by most Republicans, and a bipartisan immigration bill that has divided the GOP.
Over the past six months, his donors and supporters were turned off by what they viewed as McCain embracing the policies of a lame-duck president with abysmal approval ratings. That caused McCain's polling and fundraising to suffer.
In his statement, McCain vowed that his campaign will move ahead, "and I will continue to address the issues of greatest concern to the American people, laying out my vision for a secure and prosperous America."
Other officials said Mark Salter, a senior aide whom some consider McCain's alter ego, will continue to advise him in a voluntarily role but will cease his day-to-day involvement in the campaign.
McCain hired Nelson more than a year ago to start laying the foundation for the senator's long-expected second presidential run. Weaver has been with McCain for at least 10 years.
"It has been a tremendous honor to serve Senator McCain and work on his campaign," Nelson said. "I believe John McCain is the most experienced and prepared candidate to represent the Republican Party and defeat the Democratic nominee next year."
Weaver said: "It has been my honor and a distinct privilege to serve someone who has always put our country first. I believe that most Americans will come to the conclusion that I have long known there is only one person equipped to serve as our nation's chief executive and deal with the challenges we face, and that person is John McCain."
As word of the changes became public, McCain was on the Senate floor defending the troop buildup in Iraq and contending that reinforcements had only just been put in place. He made his sixth trip to Iraq last week.
"Make no mistake. Violence in Baghdad remains at unacceptably high levels," but the United States and Iraq seem to be "moving in the right direction," McCain said. "The progress our military has made should encourage us."
Days ago, the candidate laid off dozens of staffers after lackluster fundraising and excessive spending left him with just $2 million.
McCain raised just $11.2 million in the second financial quarter of the year, which ended Saturday. That was less than the $13.6 million he brought in during the year's first three months when he came in third behind Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.
In what would be a major strategic shift, the campaign said it was seriously considering taking public matching funds of about $6 million. But doing so could tie the campaign's hands by limiting the amount of money it can spend in individual states, particularly if his rivals forgo taxpayer money as expected.
McCain's popularity among Republicans has dropped since the start of the year, in part because of his support for measures in Congress that don't sit well with the GOP's base, like the immigration bill. He declined to participate in an early test of organizational strength in the leadoff state of Iowa this summer, and, the 70-year-old is fighting the perception that he is yesterday's candidate.
McCain's support in national polls has slipped. He is in single digits in some surveys in Iowa and South Carolina, trailing Giuliani, the former New York mayor; Romney, the ex-governor of Massachusetts, and Fred Thompson, the actor and former Tennessee senator who hasn't officially entered the race.
Adios, angry grandpa.
Shinto on
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That picture always reminds me of this one:
Seriously, though, besides all of the problems that I believe thatthey caused for the country, and the world, as a whole, I think that the second Bush administration has done a huge disservice to their own party by crippling the integritty, and future electability, of two of their best future presidential candidates, McCain and Powell.
Also, don't cozy up to the extreme religious whackjobs in your party if you want to remain trusted by/relevant to moderates.
You really think Rudy will win the nomination?
It's between him, Romney, and Thompson now. Which is exactly what I said.
His problem was that he alienated the conservative base, not that he went too far to the right.
He was a RINO, and that's what cost him. That and campaign finance reform.
Social Conservatives, perhaps, but they aren't the sole members of the GOP.
We probably agree: I wasn't claiming that he was actually moving to the right, but he did do some high-profile campaign with Falwell (I think?) at Liberty University*, and it's that kind of cozying to religious extremists that turns off the moderate Republican base. He's still campaigning as a Republican, after all, and he has to win that campaign before he can hope to win over the vast American middle ground.
*Or maybe it was Regent University, or Bob Jones University. One of those three, I just can't remember which.
EDIT, following Moniker: the point is that the Republican Party is fracturing right now due to the religious/social conservatives' dominance over the past few years. McCain prominently chose to campaign with some of the highest-profile religious conservatives in the right wing, and as a result he turned off a lot of the fed-up moderates.
I wouldn't say that religion has anything to do with the fracturing. Definitely Iraq War.
Right, which leaves him with nobody since he had already told the religious right to go fuck itself. No amount of Falwell hugging was about to bring them back over to his side and his courtship just ruined his reputation with everybody else. Well, that and being a bit of a Bush lapdog.
Perhaps; I bet Iraq is certainly the catalyst, but moderate Republicans have always found the religious wingnuts to be distasteful at the very least. Also, the religious wing is staunchly supportive of the war, and on social/economic issues sides with the administration in its decidedly non-conservative approach to law--which may actually be moderates' biggest beef with the whackjobs.
Obama? I hope so.
No bullshit, just in a list, what they want to do, and what they hope to accomplish?
Honestly, I think it'll depend on whether congress successfully takes the war out of Bush's hands and starts forcing troops home prior to 11/08. If that happens, then Hillary's main weakness with the base - her tacit support of the war - gets at least partially neutralized. If it doesn't, then anti-war sentiment among the democrats will bubble over, and they'll turn on her with Obama getting most of the gains.
Depends on how hard Republicans sling mud at Clinton. Fears of Racism will keep Obama clean, except for whatever crazy shit Ann Coulter can cook up.
Isn't bad. Of course there's wikipedia.
|daydalus.net|
==========
Q: Where do you get your politics information thats now biased?*cough Fox cough*
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
And when he bows out of the race Obama is likely to gain the most since the anti-Hillary vote won't be as split anymore.
God, I hope not.
Honestly, after reading The Assault on Reason, what I REALLY want is for Gore to enter the race. It was probably the best thing I've read in a LONG time about where our country has been going astray, and in what ways we can fix it.
I didn't agree with all of it, but I agreed with it a lot more than I've agreed with any politician in a long time.
Well, they are still the largest voting block on the Republican side. Especially in primaries. Though this is starting to change. Part of it is just utter disgust with the process and choosing to stay home on the evangelical side and another is a desire to win the party back from the idiocy and pandering that currently defines it on the moderates' side. The one Jersey Governor wrote a book on the subject a cycle ago IIRC. There does seem to be a growing divide within the GOP.
And then Obama chooses Edwards as his VP. Good choice too; he handed Cheney his ass in the debates.
3DS: 1521-4165-5907
PS3: KayleSolo
Live: Kayle Solo
WiiU: KayleSolo
Extra tidbit: what, if anything, could allow Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, this time around?
A LGBT debate to rile up the Paptists?
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=28806
3DS: 1521-4165-5907
PS3: KayleSolo
Live: Kayle Solo
WiiU: KayleSolo
It'd be nice. Are there any non-fringe ones who don't advocate wild lifestyle changes?
That's what I said in '04. Don't underestimate the ability of people to hate the other side.
Hillary has some pretty bad negatives. She's polarizing, and if she's the candidate, it may be enough.
Obama? Well, I hate to say it, but I think there are enough people who still don't want a black president to at least stay home on that day. I really wish that wasn't the case, but I think there's enough people.
Polls, corrected for the average tendency of racists to not admit they are racists, suggest that more than 80% of people don't have a problem with it.
@Shinto:
Regardless of any real negative qualities, she polls highly negatively. I think he's talking about how pollsters rate how much the public dislikes someone. For instance, Obama and Hillary might have similar positive polls, but the people who dislike Hillary really fucking dislike Hillary.
Edit:
What do you think the chances are of Gore jumping in?
Yeah, but the people who dislike Hillary that much aren't going to vote for any Democrat anyway.
Last time I checked the Real Clear Politics head to head polls, Hillary was beating every Republican frontrunner.
I do not believe Gore is going to jump in.
I wouldn't mind a Gore/Obama ticket.
Mind you, all I know about Obama is that he hasn't done anything to make me dislike him yet, which is actually pretty good for a politician.
I just feel like I'd like him betterwith a bit more experience. I'd rather see him as a VP right now.
But if these people were faced with a GOP candidate they were tepid on, they might not bother to show up to vote if not for a real nemesis on the Dem ticket. Also, and this is anecdotal, I've bumped into a good number of people who would probably default to a Democratic vote but just deeply and irrationally hate Hillary. It's stupid, but I think it's a significant factor.