Posted by
John Kuethe on Tuesday, July 10, 2007 1:52:54 PM
It comes as no surprise that the McCain campaign is falling apart; all but finished for all intents and purposes. The Senator has done everything possible to alienate the conservative base in the years since he lost to George W. Bush in his last bid for the White House and the voters have not forgotten.
We had the McCain – Feingold campaign reform fiasco that has given us the current 527 funding of campaigns; elections for sale to the highest bidder. This misguided attempt to reform the campaign system has left us with candidates who are ranked by how much money they can raise more than where they stand on substantive issues. His primary redeeming quality in the wake of McCain – Feingold was that he has been a hawk on the War in Iraq and that had kept some conservatives by his side. In a political environment bent on failure in the War, he did stand strong in support of our troops. In fact, many thought that he would be the strongest on defense of all presidential wannabes.
The Senator managed, however, to alienate the majority of those who still supported him, and doomed his campaign in the process, by his teaming up with another prominent Democrat and sponsoring the McCain – Kennedy “amnesty” fiasco. His never ending willingness to reach across the aisle and embrace the Democrats to the point that he takes positions that can best be defined as contrarian to that of his conservative base has led to his undoing. There are only so many times that he can walk down the aisle holding hands with the Left and not expect it to affect his presidential aspirations.
It is a shame, really, because I believe he was solid on the war and wanted to reign in spending. He had solid conservative positions on many issues, but they were completely overshadowed by his missteps. Here is an excerpt of the story detailing the break up of his campaign management team:
John McCain's campaign manager and chief strategist resigned Tuesday in a major staff shake-up for the struggling Republican presidential candidate who is all but broke and trails in opinion polls.
In statements, Terry Nelson, a veteran of President Bush's successful 2004 re-election effort, said he resigned as campaign manager effective immediately and John Weaver said he stepped down from his post of chief strategist. Story