McCain Slashes Staff, Citing Money Woes
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James Joyner | Monday, July 2, 2007 |
The wheels continue to come off the McCain bandwagon:
Republican John McCain reorganized his campaign Monday, cutting staff in every department as he raised just $11.2 million in the last three months and reported an abysmal $2 million cash on hand for his presidential bid.
“We confronted reality and we dealt with it in the best way that we could so that we could move forward,” Terry Nelson, McCain’s campaign manager, said.
That McCain is trailing Rudy Giuliani isn’t that surprising, given the latter’s executive experience, his “hero of 9/11″ mantra, and his freshness as a national candidate. The emergence of Fred Thompson as the “conservative alternative,” though, has really hurt.
In addition to McCain’s well publicized problems with the conservative base, he has the additional liability of being a senior United States Senator running against people who don’t have to make hard votes on controversial issues.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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In addition to McCain’s well publicized problems with the conservative base, he has the additional liability of being a senior United States Senator running against people who don’t have to make hard votes on controversial issues.
Well, McCain dodges that particular bullet by simply not showing up for votes at all these days... But you're dead-on about Fred Thompson, tho. McCain's complete transformation from 'maverick outsider' to 'W's bootlicker' these past few years is frankly embarrassing, especially considering the infighting & backstabbing that's gone on between him & W in past campaigns. He's never been conservative enough to pull the 'hard-core' GOP vote bloc, and now he's not independent enough to pull much of the moderate vote either. Unless he's completely delusional, I doubt he'll stay in until the primary votes start dropping.
I personally think it's symptomatic of the decay in Washington when a politician who has championed getting money out of politics moans about "only" raising $11.2 million for the primaries.
Yes. And don't forget that his position on the immigration issues doesn't do him any favors, and, to a lesser degree, neither did his consistent and vocal support for the surge. I was sure he was the man to beat in 2008, but at this rate, I suspect it will be Romney or Thompson. As Giulian's life story comes out (and it is a mess of divorce and alienated kids) and his positions (pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, etc.), I can't believe good conservatives will vote for him.
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