Bush consultant meets with McCain about presidential bid(2008)

The Mercury News ^ | 6-7-05 | Robert Hillman

[Gipper08]

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Mark McKinnon, the Austin political consultant who oversaw the advertising for President Bush in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, has committed to help Sen. John McCain in a second presidential bid.

McKinnon - one of the president's closest friends and confidants and a frequent mountain biking companion - met with the Arizona Republican over lunch this spring in the Senate dining room to discuss his support, said a GOP activist familiar with the meeting.

At this point, McCain, who lost to Bush in a bitter 2000 Republican primary, is in the early but unmistakable stages of laying the groundwork for another campaign. And McKinnon has indicated he would review his options, should Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, run in 2008.

The White House has sent word that Jeb Bush should be taken at his word, that he will not run. Rice, just four months into her new job, is not expected to seek the presidency, though some top Republicans have suggested she might be considered for vice president.

McKinnon, vice chairman of the Austin-based consulting firm Public Strategies Inc., said on Monday he's had "friendly conversations with Senator McCain" but would not discuss his commitment.

"I like the senator a lot, but it is too early to speculate on his intentions, as he has said himself, not to mention mine," McKinnon said in an e-mailed statement. "My political focus right now is on a successful second-term agenda for President Bush."

McCain's political strategist, John Weaver, said the senator is heartened by those "encouraging him to run," but that he has not yet decided whether he will.

"He's not out organizing," Weaver said, "and he's instructed us not to do that, either....."

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[Gipper08]

The idea that McCain is a lightwieght here on FR leads me to believe that McCain will laugh all the way to the White House if conservatives who know the truth do not stop him.

[Gipper08]

10 million gets him through Iowa!

[Gipper08]

Sanford is not running and supports McCain.

[sittnick]

Where are you from Mr. Marko? Giuliani may be a giant in New York, but if you recall, he was't even favored the beat Hillary for the Senate! If the Republicans ran him, that is the surest way to draw a significant candidate to run 3rd party. Giuliani is at heart a Democrat, heck he still endorses them regularly! With Giuliani on the top of the ticket, the base of the Republican party stays home and we lose Congress.

Giuliani:	The USA voters:
Pro partial-birth abortion	overwhelmingly against PBA
Pro homosexual legal-civil unions	overwhelmingly against homo-unions
On marriage #3 with messy divorces	cheating against adultery, especially flagrant open adultery while in office
Marched in homosexual parades	Disgusted by parades that feature NAMBLA

Add to that he is anti-gun. Oh, and he is not much of a tax cutter from what I recall either. I don't know about you, but I am a Republican BECAUSE I am a conservative. Since this is "FREE REPUBLIC" and not "ANY REPUBLICAN IS BETTER THAN ANY DEMOCRAT," I will not support Giuliani and will vote 3rd party before I vote for him. Giuliani cannot win, and the only reason to run him would be to disenfranchise the base of the party. The Giulianis and the Christine Todd "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I want to, too" Whitmans have to repent, or find another home.

[smiley]

Neither McCain nor Gingrich nor Frist....

are winnable candidates...

[JohnnyZ]

these GOP voters focus narrowly on who can beat her and are aided with polls showing McCain as the strongest challenger. The result will be McCain.

I thought you said Craig Benson was gonna be nominated?

[JohnnyZ]

What we need is a better field.

I think the field will be pretty big for a while -- Sen. Allen, Gov. Pawlenty, Huckabee, Frist, Brownback, and the Moderates, though some of those will have to drop a la Liddy Dole.

[dsmcf]

welcome to FR

Thanks. Actually I am still trying to figure out how to get into the nolongerfreepingalone yahoo group, or if it is worth it to do so, since I have had singularly poor success finding anything other than LW loons and liberals here in PRNJ.

Ah, but back to the LW loon thing...

Fascist? Only LW loons call Giuliani a fascist.

Well, let's see... I've been accused many times by a "moderate republican" friend (who votes dem) of being to the right of Attila the Hun. This'll be the first time I have been accused of being even remotely left wing.

So far as Giuliani is concerned... Look at the NYC laws. Heck, forget the rule of law -- remember Weedsport 1998, when he usurped the local authorities to persecute innocent people, outside of the city, for some twisted photo-op? He is strongly anti-RKBA, whatever his current mask. Undoubtedly he is a shrewd politician, and I laud his ability to turn around violent crime and corruption in NYC. He speaks well, and presents a compelling persona. But his jack-booted methodologies have no place in the suburbs. And before you tell me he's changed his spots, please find and quote his statement apologizing for Weedsport. (You won't: to the best of my knowledge, there has been no apology.)

"Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it." Mayor Giuliani, New York Times, 17 March 1994

[smug]

If Pence runs my wife and I will donate the limit.
That is saying something cause neither of us has ever donated more than $25 to a political candidate before.

[Mamzelle]

Hillary will beat McCain. He's old. He's had serious illnessness. He has a big, stupid, nasty mouth. He alienates conservatives. He's proven himself disloyal in almost every area of his life. I think he'll come across as a mean, crazy old coot against America's Mom. Who happens to be a little overweght--like the wife the Hero dumped.

[montag813]

.I would like to suggest that Mike Pence from Indiana is the only candidate who can be "all things to all men" in the Reagan wing of this party.

C'mon with Pence already. No one knows who the hell he is, and never will. Besides, when has a Congressman ever won the presidency?

[Wuli]

Are you calling George Bush part of the "extreme" right of the party - after signing the campaign finanace law, medicare "reform" and the expansion of the federal role in education with NCLB?

Your problem is that you accept the Dim's and the MSM's talking points, by which they want to portray anything they don't like as "controversial" (originalist judges) or "extreme" (let states' voters decide things like abortion and "gay" marriage). The fact is that very few Democrats are "moderate"; they have been so far-left of the majority of Americans for so long, they take their own leftist positions as "moderate". The MSM has worked its way with you and many Americans, portraying a sizeable congressional majority (that a majority of Americans elected) as "extreme" and an extremist, obstructing minority as "moderate". You only add to the shame of that myth and give it undeserved power by buying into it.

[montag813]

We live in a celebrity culture. Hillary and McCain are celebs, and the nominations are theirs unless some other celeb, general or citizen steps up to challenge them from the right.

[Gipper08]

Lincoln and Garfield.

"No one knows who the hell he is"
That does not mean they shouldn't

[JohnnyZ]

US Rep. Geoff Davis for President!!!!!! Military and business background.

Unless you prefer lawyers & talk radio hosts.

[Gipper08]

you are not very helpful

[JohnnyZ]

Put a lawyer in the White House! Either Mike Pence or Hillary Clinton!

[Kozak]

The masterstroke for the Republicans to pull (even though I love the guy ), would be for Cheney to step down for health reasons after the 06 election, and have Bush name Rice ( my first choice ) or Guliani as VPOTUS. This gives that person the ability to run from a position of strength. In particular naming Rice as VP would take a lot of the wind out of The Witch's sails, first woman, highest ranking African American, etc etc. NO Republican could attack her, and even the Rats would be tearing their hair out over this. It's Genius I tell ya....

[finnman69]

Actually I dont rememeber Weedpsort here at all. It can't have been much at all.

[BlackElk]

Nothing wrong with Allen or Brownback (other than Brownback's lack of executive experience). IF, as suggested by Gipper08, Allen does not thrill pro-lifers and those socially conservative on other issues, I feel confident that he can take a sufficient written pledge to satisfy doubters.

If McCain (whom I am ashamed to say I favored in 2000) is nominated, he might choose Russ Feingold as his running mate. McCain-Feingold has that familiar ring. Actually McCain's real danger is that, in his Captain Queeg persona, he will run 3rd party in which case he would choose a Demonrat dweeb running mate to show America that he will end partisanship as we know it. Of course, show me the candidate who promises to take the politics out of (name yer poison) and I will show you a candidate with complete contempt for public input who wants to replace party bossism with personal bossism. Oh wait, that defines McCain, doesn't it?

gipper08: Mike Pence certainly seems to be a wonderful guy and a wonderful congressman. On the other hand, legislators who have no executive experience rarely win the White House. Since the Civil War (and probably longer) only three incumbent senators have been elected: Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Warren Gamaliel Harding in 1920 and John F. Kennedy. In terms of actual achievements, each was eminently forgettable. In 1880, the election produced the ONLY sitting Congressman to be elected in American history: James Garfield, also eminently forgettable but he was Speaker of the House not a junior member. Would it not be better by far for the relatively youthful Pence to become a cabinet secretary or governor of Indiana as a stepping stone. Executive experience and performance are not negligible items. If you really think that a legislative seat is a launching pad, maybe he should take out Evan Bayh. I am very enthusiastic for Pence as a future major leaer and even president but three terms in Congress are a very thin resume.