He's wooing the rino vote.
Blackwell is a fool. He is playing to the media types and they are playing up Blackwell just as they did Howard Dean for President in the fall of 2003.
It is a typical media response. They create self fulfilling polls.. Just like the polls that showed Howard Dean was a shoe in for the Democratic Presidential nomination in the fall of 2003. Remember the media stories in October, November and into December of 2003? Howard Dean had organized the biggest web support team in history and was rolling in money. It was Deans nomination to lose. When the media found out they were totally wrong in Iowa they used their cameras to paint Dean as a buffoon.
But Kerry in the fall of 2003 like Montgomery in the fall of 2005 knows that winning primaries is about organization. It is about precinct workers who get out the faithful voters. With Taft in the toilet, the turn out in the Republican primary of 2006 will be small. The election will be decided by the candidate with the grass roots organization that knows how to get out the Republican voters. That takes door to door work. Spots on the air and free media coverage is of little value in this set of circumstances.
The media likes to tell politicians how powerful the Media is, and many like Blackwell believe them. Blackwell even believes the media when they tell Blackwell that a McCain endorsement would greatly increase Blackwell's chances of wining the primary. That is why Blackwell sought and acquired the McCain endorsement.
Those of us who understand what a negative a McCain endorsement is for a Republican primary in Ohio, know how ignorant it was for Blackwell to go after the McCain endorsement.
Blackwell is playing in a the big leagues with T ball skills learned playing against T ball opposition. Seeking a McCain endorsement has to rank up their with some of the dumbest moves in political history.
Montgomery has signed up nearly all of the party workers who were part of the Bush Team in 2004. Blackwell has no organized team at the local level. he is depending on the media. It shows his political ignorance and naivety.
The media is feeding Blackwell bull Crap. They say Blackwell is the one with a hammer lock on the nomination. They said Howard Dean had a hammerlock on the Democratic nomination in the fall 2003. They are wrong.
Typical media... They imagine they are powerful. They convince ignorant candidates that they are powerful. Candidates who fall for the media pitch are very surprised when they learn the truth.
One final point. When the media finally gets the word that they are wrong they always blame the candidate. By next summer Blackwell will be a media joke. They will do to Blackwell what they did to Dean..... make him into a joke for moderates and Democrats.