Friday, March 30, 2007
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Why McCain Won The Week
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
4:38 PM
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This was the week John McCain got his groove back.
He made major inroads with conservative opinion leaders and bloggers -- stood up to the Democrats’ “surrender strategy” -- and avoided some potential landmines laid by his opponents.
While many pundits are prematurely predicting the demise of his campaign, McCain is just starting to hit his stride.
How did it happen? Here’s a quick synopsis of the week ...
This past weekend, McCain held several town hall meetings in New Hampshire. I flew up to see the campaign first-hand, attend some town hall meetings, and chat with McCain on the Straight Talk Express. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was a guy with a pretty good sense of humor about his relationship with the conservative blogosphere ...
... Few candidates allow the unfettered access that McCain actually encourages. But being accessible to the establishment media is one thing; talking to conservative bloggers is quite another.
Candidates who would happily do a sit-down with David Broder, might scoff at the idea of having a blogger interview (and film) them. Not so with McCain.
But, perhaps, the most important reason McCain's team is wise to encourage journalists and bloggers to travel with him to places like New Hampshire, is that it's a chance to see what conservative voters outside the Beltway really care about ...
The above interview (along with several others we conducted) made it clear that the issues which have plagued McCain among conservative pundits and "insiders" have not resonated with the voters in states like New Hampshire.
But let's be honest; Opinion leaders do matter. That's why McCain was smart to host a conference call for over a dozen top conservative bloggers early in the week (this outreach seems to be a strategic change, which I believe has a lot to do with McCain's good week, this week).
He also appeared on several conservative talk radio shows, including: Bill Bennett, Michael Medved, and Laura Ingraham.
But while reaching out to conservative opinion leaders is good, nothing ingratiates you to conservatives more than attacking liberals.
On Wednesday, McCain launched a petition stating that “the supplemental appropriations bill that passed the Senate on March 27, calling for a date certain withdrawal from Iraq, is nothing more than a guaranteed date of surrender.”
He also had words with Hillary Clinton over an amendment she wanted to tack onto emergency funding for Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain has long been an anti-pork proponent crusader, and in fact, during my time with him on the bus, he discussed how Ronald Reagan would be very upset at Republicans because of spending:
The momentum he gained this week also served to eclipse the 5-year anniversary of President Bush’s signing campaign finance reform.
Sure, Rudy closed the week strong by securing the endorsement of Steve Forbes, but as NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote: “This week may go to McCain.”
But the real reason it was McCain's week is that he's the only one who can be happy about this graph.
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According to McCain it's so much better in Iraq....but then as the First Lady says...there's that one bomb a day thingy...
BAGHDAD - Suicide bombers and militiamen fought back ferociously in the seventh week of the Baghdad security crackdown, killing at least 508 people in the past six days, but the government vowed Friday it would win the race against terrorism and despair.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070330/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
Yeah let's send more money. And I do hope you are right that McCain is seen as a rising star for the dreary republican potential pres. candidates because come Nov 2008.....well be licking our chops.
Truth is McCain has NO chance of becoming President. |
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What exactly does that mean? Don't delude yourself Matt; I'll aplaud McCain's stance against the congressional defeatists and even be thankul to him for it but I still won't vote for him. He is what he has been and will continue to be in the future.
Never. |
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Big deal.
And muirgeo, you're proof positive that the liberals are rooting for the terrorists. The quote you cited says it all. |
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Your guy got KAYOED by that Harris poll showing Thompson a strong candidate. Although McCain's numbers were unaffected by Thompson's entry, his current support level is about all he is ever going to get from Republicans. Giuliani and Romney will get taken out by Thompson who will absorb their voters putting him far ahead of McCain. I am willing to bet that Thompson will also find more support among Democrats than McCain. Thompson is the only candidate with poll numbers and support among the conservative base. Beware all those who ignore Tony Blankley's warning about digging a hole to deep to climb out of. |
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Matt,
McCain has always been strong about fighting against Islamic Jihad---no conservative has ever stated otherwise.
He's also a fine American Patriot, and I cannot fathom the suffering he must have endured as a P.O.W.
If McCain ends up as the GOP nominee, I'll take Mayor Daley's sage advice to "vote early, and vote often" for McCain on Election Day 2008.
But I don't want McCain to be the party's nominee.
He's failed both the conservative movement and the Republican Party on some very key issues the past few years.
Matt, it's funny how just a couple days ago, you were proudly asserting that McCain was circumventing conservative opinion leaders in favor of "conservative voters," and you even questioned how influential conservative opinion leaders truly are in the first place.
Now, you're singing the tune that McCain made "major inroads" this week with conservative opinion leaders, which suggests to me that, indeed, you DO believe that earning the support by conservative opinion leaders is key.
(Again, you were singin' a different song the other day.)
However, making "major inroads" suggests McCain has changed the minds of some conservative opinion leaders about the way they perceive his candidacy---but whose minds has McCain changed ?
McCain has ALWAYS been respected & admired by conservative opinion leaders for his strong stance on fighting against Jihad, thus, McCain didn't show conservatives something this week we hadn't already seen from him.
McCain did have the advantage this week as far as face time on camera since he's the only GOP candidate in the Senate, and the big issue was a Senate vote---fair enough.
But being the only Senator in the GOP race is also McCain's achilles heel in the GOP primary.
After all, it's his Senate record on some key conservative issues (outside of his votes on the war) which has earned him his less-than-stellar reputation among the conservative base.
It's commendable that McCain did go on Bennett, Medved, and Ingraham's shows.
But as far as I've heard reported, he appeared on those shows for the narrow focus of discussing the Senate vote & the war rather than to discuss his general candidacy and take challenges about his controversial voting record on McCain-Feingold, Gang of 14, opposing the Bush tax cuts, opposing drilling in ANWAR, and supporting the punitive inheritance tax.
If McCain wants to reach out to "conservative voters," I can think of no better vehicle than to go on more conservative talk radio shows, and take challenges about his controversial Senate votes.
But we all know why Senator McCain won't come on Hugh Hewitt's show, or answer Prager's inquiries about the motivation for co-authoring McCain-Feingold---the Senator knows he can't score points with the conservative base in those debates.
It's the same reason, Matt, that you have avoided stepping up to the plate to defend McCain's record on the aforementioned issues, and instead, have focused on subverting McCain's rivals by targeting Romney's religion, targeting Rudy's divorces, targeting Rudy wearing a dress in a TV skit, and most recently, you questioned whether the failure of Rudy's webmaster to secure his website from hackers indicates an inability by Rudy to defend the homeland if he were President.
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GenXDad writes: Friday, March, 30, 2007 7:05 PM
He gained a whopping 2 points
Big deal.
And muirgeo, you're proof positive that the liberals are rooting for the terrorists. The quote you cited says it all.
I showed McCain getting caught lying so now I'm a terrorist too. Good job Junior Rush Ranger! |
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Sorry, Mr. Lewis no matter how much you gush, I will cringe if McCain gets the nomination, possibly throw up, and I might would vote for him, but only while holding my nose and with tears in my eyes. I simply can't stand the man and would possibly despise him as much as I did Clinton when he held the highest office in the land. That's almost as much as the lefties hate W. |
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Along with a spout with Sen. Clinton, on McCains youtube has a video of Sen. McCain destroying golden boy Obama, while attacking the anti-war postition altogether.
http://partisanamerican.blogspot.com/ |
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Thompson will wait a little longer, but when he announces his campaign everybody else will fold quickly. They have no chance against him and they know it. Don't think Thompson will run? Even his wife wants him to run! And as a married man I can tell you....that is a guarantee that he is going to run.
I could live with Mccain being Secretary of Defense, which would take him away from being my Senator! Maybe we can get a real conservative in his current seat! |
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McCain-Feingold's still on the books, and that ALONE disqualifies him for Prez, let alone McCain/Kennedy and every other piece of deplorable legislation with his name stuck to it.
As a matter of fact, I can't think of a single piece of legislation with his name on it that's worth a tinker's damn.
Throw in Gang of 14 and the Keating scandal, and this guy's an absolute embarrassment to the Rep party, or at least should be.
Fuggedaboutit!
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McCain-Feingold is bad enough. His antics concerning the appointment of judges with his gang of fourteen had as much to do with the GOP getting shallacked last November as anything else. I remember him on some stupid drive-by media show during the whole ordeal arrogantly proclaiming that it doesn't matter what anybody else in the country thought because only he and his thirteen colleagues would be the decsion makers. I don't think he will win the nomination despite his recent surge, much the same way I don't think John Edwards has a chance at winning the democrat nomination despite his recent boost in popularity. If I am wrong and McCain does actually win the nomination, I will not hesitate to support him out of fear of Hillary. It's not that tough of a decision for me, the democrats must be defeated at all costs. |
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I actually favored McCain for 2000, and thought that his "maverick" stuff was kinda cool. But then he went too far. He should apologize for voting against the Bush tax cuts at least, and recognize that the economy is as strong as it is because of that very policy. I appreciate him bashing big-spending but geez, he should at least explain some of these terrible votes on his record. I love McCain's example, and he will always be a national and personal hero of mine. I particularly admire the tradition of service in the McCain family, and maybe someday I'll vote for one of his kids, but he's not the one for '08. He's not even in the top 3 for me anymore, now that there's a chance Thompson could run! |
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I will always have the geatest respect for John McCain as a veteran and POW, but I have to ask myself, "If I were a true citizen of Arizona, was Sen. McCain voting on my best intrest when he voted YES to S-2611? Was he thinking of the best intrest of the TRUE citizen when he voted YES to SA-3985 To allow illegal alliens to access social security benefits with the stolen identification of a TRUE citizen? Was he thinking of the TRUE citizen, when he voted YES to closure, stopping other GOP Senators from pointing out why S-2611 was bad legislation? Was he thinking in the best intrest of the TRUE citizen when he voted YES to SA-4188 "Managers Package" that required local,state, and federal government to CONSULT with the Mexican Government, prior to the building of any fences or barriers on the border?"(Veto Power)......These votes are unvorgivable! And if he disrespects the American citizens this much, he would be scary in the Whitehouse in my oppinion..............NONCONSERVATIVE VOTING! |
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