Posts Tagged ‘John McCain’

Off With His Head

Posted: October 28, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, October Surprise, Sarah Palin, Senate
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McCain says it’s time for Ted Stevens to go, but his running mate does not.

The Republican presidential ticket appears to be of two minds on whether or not convicted Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens should resign from the Senate. John McCain called on the longest serving Republican senator to step down today in a statement.

“It is clear that Senator Stevens has broken his trust with the people and that he should now step down. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will be spurred by these events to redouble their efforts to end this kind of corruption once and for all,” McCain said.

His running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has not called on her home state colleague to resign. While the statement released by the campaign today had the McCain-Palin logo on it, it was a statement only from the Arizona senator. CNN reported Monday that Palin called the conviction a “sad day” for Alaska and said she was confident that Stevens “from this point on will do the right thing for the people of Alaska.” She did not respond when asked if she would vote for Stevens on Nov. 4.

Mixed messages during the last days of the campaign? Not a good idea.

Update: Looks like Sarah Palin figured out it wasn’t a good idea to be seen as potentially aligning herself with a convicted felon. She got with the program and called for Stevens to go.

Circular Firing Squad

Posted: October 28, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, October Surprise, Sarah Palin
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This time, it’s the McCain campaign vs. the RNC over the Palin wardrobe shopping spree.  The story is so politically toxic, nobody wants to claim responsibility.

Update: This is absolutely stunning. Sen. John Ensign, the man responsible for getting Republican candidates elected to the U.S. Senate, is saying it’s a “fair possibility” that Democrats will get a 60-seat supermajority and points the finger at John McCain, saying during an MSNBC interview that, “There’s no question the top of the ticket is affecting our Senate races and it’s making it a lot more difficult.”

The Tell

Posted: October 28, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, John McCain
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The new L-word in Republican circles is landslide.

Circular Firing Squad

Posted: October 27, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Sarah Palin
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According to the conservative American Spectator, former aides to Mitt Romney now working for the McCain campaign are the ones who are twisting the knife in Sarah Palin during the recent reports published by CNN, Politico, and other news organizations.

Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers, some of whom are currently working for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin‘s bid for the White House, have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election. “Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won’t be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,” says one former Romney aide, now working for McCain-Palin. “The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney. He’s in charge on November 5th.”

Romney has kept a low profile nationally since being denied the vice presidential nomination. He is currently traveling for the National Republican Congressional Committee in support of some House members, and has attended events for a handful of other House members who have sought his support, but he has traveled little for the McCain-Palin ticket. “He said the only time he’d travel for us is if we assured him that national cameras would be there,” says a McCain campaign communications aide. “He’s traveled to Nevada and a couple other states for us. That’s about it.”
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Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a “diva” and was going off message intentionally. The former and current Romney supporters further are pushing Romney supporters for key Republican jobs, including head of the Republican National Committee.

This certainly makes sense, as Romney’s people would have the means and the motive to be dumping on McCain and Palin. McCain passed on Romney as his VP nominee, and the two men did not like each other very much during the Republican primary. Romney was merciless in tying McCain to Republican boogeymen Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy for his legislative work with them during the primary season. Now Romney’s people have an opportunity for payback and then some – they weaken Palin before she can have the opportunity to become the party frontrunner for 2012 and put their guy in front.

Not Over Yet

Posted: October 27, 2008 in 2008 Elections, Barack Obama, John McCain
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Nate Silver has this op-ed in the New York Post on how McCain could win the election without Pennsylvania.  The chances of McCain actually pulling it off according to him are slim – 5 percent.  But it’s a scenario worth keeping in mind on Election Night because stranger things have happened.

McCain Guarantees Victory

Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain
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Does he know something the rest of us don’t?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he can “guarantee” a win on Nov. 4 in a squeaker victory that won’t be clear until late that night.

McCain spoke amid signs of a tightening race, and reports of renewed determination among his staff, which is badly outgunned in both money and manpower.

“I guarantee you that two weeks from now, you will see this has been a very close race, and I believe that I’m going to win it,” McCain told interim “Meet” moderator Tom Brokaw. “We’re going to do well in this campaign, my friend. We’re going to win it, and it’s going to be tight, and we’re going to be up late.”

McCain was down just 5 points in the Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released Sunday, with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) leading by 49 percent to 44 percent among likely voters in the daily tracking poll, which has a margin of error of 2.9 points.

Quote of the Day

Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Quotes, Sarah Palin, Talking Heads
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“There’s going to be a bloodbath. A lot of people are going to be excommunicated. David Brooks and David Frum and Peggy Noonan are dead people in the Republican Party. The litmus test will be: where did you stand on Palin?”
– Jim Nuzzo, former White House aide to George H.W. Bush

The Tell

Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Media, Talking Heads
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This time from Arizona Republican senator Jon Kyl.

Update: Former Bush speechwriter David Frum is also pessimistic about McCain in his Washington Post op-ed.

Viral E-mails Come to Life

Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain
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That’s how Jonathan Martin describes the angry fringe supporters at some McCain-Palin events.

Circular Firing Squad

Posted: October 26, 2008 in 2008 Elections, John McCain, Sarah Palin
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The finger-pointing and blame game continues.

It is absolutely stunning for a McCain adviser to call his running mate a “diva” and say that she has no relationship of trust with anyone in the campaign a week before Election Day. The sharpening of the knives continues inside the Republican Party and it is going to be very ugly over there after this election is over.

Update: Also check out this story from Politico’s Ben Smith.

Update II: Karl Rove gets in on the action, calling the finger-pointing “sad” on Fox News Sunday.

Update III: Bill Kristol, arguably Palin’s biggest supporter in the TV pundit class, takes the McCain campaign and the RNC out to the woodshed over their handling of Sarah Palin, saying she’s been “ill served” by them.

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