Wednesday, July 11, 2007
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The Email McCain Could Have Sent
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Posted by:
Patrick Ruffini at
1:01 AM
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This evening, I got an email from John McCain filled with typical political happy talk like "Though we have a long, hard road ahead of all of us, I know that with your help, we will prevail," and "Together, I have every confidence that we will be successful." I certainly don't feel any outsized affection for Senator McCain, but I sincerely believe he missed an opportunity to make history tonight. To really engage his supporters in a valiant comeback attempt, to give them ownership of the campaign, and to maybe -- just maybe -- set in motion some momentum that could have gotten him back in this. It's a strategy that will take guts -- a willingness to publicly put the very survival of the campaign on the line (as though it isn't already). If I believed there was any hope of this strategy being tried, I wouldn't post it, because Lord knows this doesn't reflect my personal preferences in this race. But it's clear that after today's rearranging of the deck chairs that it won't be. So here goes. Here's the email McCain could have sent:
Subject: Your Decision
From: John McCain
Dear _______,
You may have seen the news.
In recent days, we have had to make some tough choices so that our campaign could continue. There is no shading the truth that the past few weeks and months have been difficult ones for our campaign.Campaigns are a long road with many peaks and valleys, victories and defeats. If I have let you down along the way, the responsibility is mine, and mine alone.
Here's what this news doesn't change. I'm here, continuing this fight,because victory in this struggle against fanatical jihadism matters more than victory in any campaign. I ran for President because America needed to hear straight talk -- and not comforting platitudes -- about Iraq. I'm running because wasteful pork barrel spending has gotten so out of control it's made me ashamed to be a member of the United States Congress, and I want to do something about it.
If this is what you believe, will you stand with me?
In a few days, our campaign will confront another tough choice: whether to take Federal matching funds for the primary campaign. Doing so would allow us to continue as a campaign through Iowa and New Hampshire. It would certainly relieve some of the need to fundraise, so I could spend more time in VFW halls and coffee shops, sharing my vision for America.But it would come at a steep cost. Should we succeed, we would face a Democrat nominee able to raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars -- with almost no money in the bank. Our campaign would not be directly able to respond to the inevitable attacks or build the organization needed to win a general election.
The moment of decision is now, and the choice is stark. To ensure thatour campaign is able to compete with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama free of Federal limits, we need to raise $1 million online by midnight on Saturday.
http://www.JohnMcCain.com/Decision
The future of this campaign is in your hands. Should we not have enough support from our online community to continue without matching funds, I will abide by that decision, and any amount you contribute towards this effort will be refunded. But if we do meet the goal... we will have shown the country that our campaign is strong enough to meet this key test of strength. And we will have taken that first step on the road back to victory.
http://www.JohnMcCain.com/Decision
I eagerly await your verdict. Please visit JohnMcCain.com/Decision in the coming days to track our progress towards the $1 million goal... and the decision about the future of our campaign.
Sincerely,
John McCain I think I know what the internal objections would be. What if we fail? (Like the campaign hasn't failed spectacularly already.) What if we're stuck taking matching funds? (That seems to be what they're steeling the press for, and frankly, they don't seem to have a choice.) There's NO WAY 1, 2 or 4 emails before the deadline can generate that amount of cash. (Doesn't matter. Earned media would do it for them. This is newsworthy and would get repeated on CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. Every McCain supporter -- not just the ones online -- would come out of the woodwork for a chance to make this decision, and the serious ones would be glued to the page to track the cash that came in.)
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Many of McCain's supporters like him because of an image. They imagine a rough POW maverick that is taking on the establishment--a kind of rebel. However, in my view, he is neither. He, moderate squishy Republicans, and Democrats ARE the establishment. His McCain-Feingold, Gang of 14 and McCain-Kennedy are all pro-establishment proposals.
He is not a rebel in the best sense either. Any politician can go the way of the liberal and do what he did with going against the tax cuts. He is addicted to the media and doesn't have the fortitude to stand up to it. Now has he been strong on some issues? Yes, but they are issues that the other candidates can match him on. This romanticized McCain is nothing but a fantasy. |
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His Vietnam experience has gained McCain a tenured for life seat in the US Senate. I'm a native Arizonan and I can't even count the number of people I know who know almost nothing about any of McCain's positions but will forever vote for him because he was a POW in Vietnam. That's their right, but i do not believe McCain is owed the Presidency, and for the Republican nomination, he must stand on his record and his postion on the critical issues. Most Republicans consider him toast.
If McCain were to take Hewitt's advice and send out that email, my guess is he would get back about five bucks in campaign contributions. |
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Conservatives love McCain's stand on Iraq, but he had McCain-Feingold followed by the Gang of 14 and then to put the cherry on top there was McCain-Kennedy which was opposed by about 80% of ALL Americans from ALL parties. Those three things are the reason the McCain is DEAD as a presidential candidate!
As for those Dumocrats who feel so smug, I believe that given a conservative candidate who supports fighting terrorists in THEIR yard and not ours and who can articulate his positions will defeat any Dumocrat candidate who has the same ol' same ol' of tax and spend and the govenment has the solution as their only ideas for the future. How well has it worked when we have heard, "we're from the government and we're here to help". If you are a Dumocrat and believe this, give us some verifiable examples of the government helping that had "super" results. Most people with Common Sense know that the government is usually the problem, not the solution, because the government is like a bull in a china shop. It has a lot of power and money, but it definitely lacks the delicate touch that is needed to solve the problem. Most of the time after the government solves the problems, the unintended consequences are WORSE than the problem was. |
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I would advise Mc Cain to pack it in and go home. Or become a REAL REP and stop playing games.
You wonder why his numbers are falling. |
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The author's attempt to ghost write a memo for Sen McCain falls pretty flat. I would have been underwhelmed had I received it from him.
I advise the senator not to hire him. |
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Right now, the democrats have 2, maybe 3 candidates who could win the election depending on who their republican opponent is, and what the state of the Iraq war is a year from now.
Of the republicans, there are many who could win the nomination, but I'm not so sure how many of them could win the general election.
I think DRIVE-BY made a good point: the favorite of many TH posters could not win a general election. Ergo, TH may not be representative of the voters at large. Independent votes will count. What else will count: those who voice their preferences for a democrat, but in the privacy of the voting booth, decide otherwise.
I would like to see Sen McCain stay in. |
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Some quick thoughts on McCain.
He does not understand marketing and management.
His poll and sportstrade numbers went up when he lead the charge on Iraq. They dropped thru the floor when he lead the charge on immigration.
Thompson has killed McCain by taking votes and money at the wrong time. McCain would be surviving Immigration if Thompson were not sucking the life out of him.
He can continue as long as his national poll numbers are higher than Huckabee's. He can hurt other candidates and maybe steer the agenda, the issues and the nomination.
He will stay in as long as he can. If Thompson or Rudy stumble badly he could move back up. |
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John McCain could also send an e-mail:
"It's not amnesty" and "I'm still in the Presidential race"
Some of us are delighted in the political self-destruction of the arrogant Senator from Arizona. |
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Please get off this idea that he could make it all the way to Prez office.
The press has loved him because he plays with the GOP. But if any of you think they will remain his friend when it comes time to vote your fools. They will tear into Mc Cain because he does have a past, and not a good one at that.
For staters, he used his fathers name to get into the Navy. His grades were so-so and his flying was worse. Try reading up on him before you jump on his band wagon.
Yes he was great as a POW and I have the upmost respect for him, but that's where it ends.
Do you really think the MSN will let this slide by if they thought he could become the Prez! |
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McCain surrendered all hope of winning when he went off the rains with Teddy Kennedy, that weenie Lindsay Graham and other senators swollen with enough arrogance to think they could cram an immigration bill down the country's throat that legalized who knows how many million aliens and opened the door to many more. |
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OOOOOOOOO, we have been warned.
PLEASE!
you sound like a school yard punk. |
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And it's not "Never get involved in a a land war in Asia."
It's "Don't believe your own press." |
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Love your talking for "the American people",Drive By. Rudy ain't--Eeeeeek---"right wing",nor is Mitt. But,be assured,they'll be supported by conservative media when the time comes.Rumor even has it that they read TownHall
and keep close tabs on the likes of Hugh & Dennis.
AND,either is entirely capable of kicking Bazama's or Hillary's cabeesters.Promise. |
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Too bad the politicos still don't understand America... |
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the ones voting in McCain to the nomination. Yes, we know the libs all love McCain. He is their kind of republican. the problem here being is that republican's look for something different in their candidate....you ready? they want a real republican not a RINO.... |
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A sermon is a warning and my sermon to those who blast McCain is this. America will not accept any Republican candidate that would be supported by right wing media and Town Hall. You all are your own worst enemy. Americans want people in the center.
You need to wake up to that fact.
McCain is willing to work with Democrats. McCain is not rabid in his hatred for liberals. McCain's big mistake is being pro-Iraq war.
Take pleasure in McCain's demise at your own peril.
Clinton got elected President by running to the center. He promoted NAFTA and many other things conventional liberals did not like.
Republicans need their centrist if they want to stand even a remote chance of winning back the American people.
You have been warned.
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Agreed.A good,brave & flawed man. Prone to desiring flattery from Press Fools.Having large
cajones on al Qaeda & Iraq--God LOVE him for it--
isn't enough to overcome his character defects
that put him in the sack with Teddy or Russ or
Collander Border promoters.His temperament ain't right for president,but just listen to his language on the floor of the Senate yesterday re:
Iraq...And throwing Feinstein's(or was it Babs Boxer)sorry defeatist rhetoric back at the girl &
you'll love his Integrity Index. |
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By catering to the beltway press and 'reaching out' to the chimps across the aisle, Good John McCain trod on his male appendage.
He never realized that had there been a perfect storm, one resulting in a McCain nomination, his fair weather friends in the 4th estate would have turned on him, hyenas one and all. When Good John defied G.O.P. orthodoxy he thrilled the newsies and cemented his failure to capture the imagination and heart of the Grand Old Party.
Immigration reform without border security, a figurative romp 'tween the sheets with Russ Feingold and diluting the Republican majority in the Senate are not heroic, not leadership.
I think had Good John McCain matriculated in the House of Representatives, he would have become a firebrand. There is something morally debilitating about life in the House of Lords. |
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McCain was never the front runner. He has been a thorn in conservatives sides since his days shaking down S&Ls with the Keating Five. He is a brave man and a good man, but no conservative.
As for Iraq, I can't wait til you libs figure out that Webb really wants AQ dead and flips on Iraq. Webbb wants to change the rules of engagement, he wants us to take off the gloves, take care of AQ in Iraq to send a message to would be extremists and Iran. Webb strongly backed the removal (mass extermination) of the Taliban and will support the president if he focuses our mission to removing AQ from Iraq. The UN and Amnesty International types will balk, but killing AQ is the best way out of Iraq. Even then we will leave a force structure of 70K just to police Iraqs borders. Still the message will be sent, don't tug on Superman's cape.
FYI, when President Bush meets with Webb, you will know he has been turned.
http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00CX1e
"we need to start with a basic premise: if fundamentalist Muslim terrorists want to die for a cause, you are not going to stop them. The most important thing you can do, if you are their adversary, is to kill them on your terms, not on theirs. That makes some Americans?particularly American media? squeamish. But that is the reality of the situation we are in.
The Taliban is probably the most clear-cut example of what might be called a prototype for looking forward into how we should be addressing the situation. We have given those people clear signals. They obviously are not complying, for a number of reasons. As a result, we are taking necessary action to ensure elimination of this cancer that has grown inside their country. We have the right to do that, under the United Nations Charter. This is clearly self- defense."
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no matter how the MSM would like to spin it. His problems can be summed up with McCain Kennedy and McCain Feingold. Iraq may be the only thing that links conservatives and McCain at all. He needs to take a long hard look at the fact that 70% of America did not support ShAmnesty and stop postponing the inevitable. |
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ya gotta love these useful idiot libs trying to push the "Iraq dragging McCain down" talking point, as if us conservatives don't know why we despise him |
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Lampoon McCain all you like. A quick look in the mirror will tell Town Hall that it wears the same disease. This is the disease called supporting Bush in Iraq is deadly.
The silence on Bush's exclamation about not changing anything no matter the failure in Iraq is deafening.
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"i love amnesty and anarchy.
i love blocking conservative judges.
i love raising your taxes.
and i really love destroying the 1st Amendment.
what a 'Maverick' I am!
your pal,
John McCain" |
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