Posted on 11/10/2006 2:07:19 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
His party may have taken "a thumpin'," in the words of President Bush, but ABC News has learned that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and his political team have decided it's full steam ahead for his 2008 presidential campaign. Although no absolute, final decision has been made, sources close to McCain say on Wednesday in Phoenix, he and a half dozen of his top aides huddled and decided to proceed more formally with his quest for the White House.
A presidential exploratory committee will be set up this month — perhaps as early as next week.
McCain's official, final decision will likely not come until after the Christmas holidays, when he will talk to his wife, Cindy, and his children.
Among his seven children, Jimmy is at boot camp at Camp Pendleton; Jack is at the Naval Academy; and daughter Megan is in her senior year at Columbia University.
In the meantime, McCain's team is exploring office space in Virginia, hiring staff and building infrastructure in key early-primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Strategy Could Target Swing Voters, Bipartisan Issues
Despite Republican losses of the House and Senate, McCain sees encouraging signs for his personal quest.
Independent voters were the key swing voters in this election, going overwhelmingly for Democrats.
Republicans will want to focus on winning them back, and according to polls, McCain is more popular with them than he is with conservative Republicans.
In exit polls, Republican voters expressed disappointment with their party on the issues of fiscal restraint and government ethics, issues McCain has tried to make his signature.
"A lot of people look at the Republican Congress and say the problem is they only took half measures of which McCain wanted to do in full measure," said former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon, who worked on the 2004 campaign.
He said McCain had been a "leader for years" in those areas.
"All the relevant issues in the Congress now — spending reform, ethics reform — are issues that John McCain has been talking about for a long time," he said.
Why would McCain start his campaign so early?
For one reason, the race is wide open — with no president or vice president running for the first time in 80 years.
Already Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa have announced their intentions.
The race also looks to be expensive. In 2004, President Bush spent more than $345 million on his campaign.
Though he's considered his party's front-runner, McCain faces some considerable hurdles.
Having turned 70 in August, he would be the oldest U.S. president to get elected. And he faces at least one strong challenger within the party, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and others in the seemingly ascendant Democratic Party, such as Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Moreover, McCain has yet to resolve the problems he's had with the Republican Party's conservative base.
"He has a problem with pro-lifers on judges, he … became very hostile to the Second Amendment community and supportive of gun control. He has a problem with the economic conservatives because he's been bad on taxes for six years now," said longtime critic Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, which includes individuals and businesses opposed to higher taxes.
"Conservatives who care about the tax issue are very concerned that he opposed Bush's tax cuts," Norquist said.
McCain has tried to combat that with goodwill. He appeared at 346 events for Republican candidates this election cycle and was said to be the most requested speaker for GOP candidates.
"He's built a base across the country, and unlike [in] 2000, John McCain will run a 50-state strategy," McKinnon said.
While emphasizing more bipartisan issues such as campaign finance reform and a patients' bill of rights early in the Bush presidency, McCain has more recently strongly supported the war in Iraq.
He may very well be the only serious presidential contender calling for more troops to go to Iraq.
While he opposes a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, he supported such an effort in his state — an effort that failed.
McCain has also attempted to reach out to conservative evangelical leaders, as he did with the Rev. Jerry Falwell earlier this year.
Appealing to those conservatives while keeping the independents so important to his party's 2008 hopes may pose a considerable challenge.
In his heart, he is as republican as Hillary!
I will call his campaign committee on Monday and teach them some new words.
some new campaign slogans for RINOs.
I hope you're right, but the Dems are better at twisting arms than the Pubbies when the big issues, like judgeships, are on the line. And the Dems, even more than we, NEED liberal judges. Too many of their pet issues have no chance to win with voters. They must have liberal judges to overrule the will of the people.
And although we got rid of Chafee, we still have RINOs who will vote with the Dems if they can't hold all 51 together. What Bush should do when the next vacancy comes about is nominate Janice Rogers Brown. A female, black strict constructionist. That would be an interesting confirmation hearing, to say the least.
Also he has a very short fuse.
Can you imagine how he would have reacted to all the insults and provocation President Bush has endured during the past six years?
not for the rules change - even the bopsy twins from Maine wouldn't vote to give the Dems the rules change.
if the Dems want the rules change, they will have to hold all of their 51. any R of our 49, who voted to give up the fillibuster - might as well leave the party.
He will run, lose, and then attack the GOP for being too extremist and directed by the far right. John only wants to wreck the party to advance himself. I'll never vote for him because I think he is nuts, honestly, I think he is crazy and dangerous.
I read an article a few months ago saying that Bush was backing this run.
TANCREDO FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
McCain can GO POUND SALT.
I wouldn't and no rational conservative would. And I thought Weiner was stupid.
Same shit he pulled when W handed him his ass back in the 2000 primaries. And he will get his ass handed to him again. Some people learn from history. Others don't and are doomed to repeat it. McCain is in the latter bunch.
I would never under any circumstances (even Hitlary) vote for either McCain or Rudy for POTUS. While I like Rudy on a personal level, he's too much of a squishy lib for me politically. Don't even get me started on McCain.
Everyone else that has been talked about making a run is negotiable.
Don't Do it republicans!
If you do, it's all over,
Lincoln was your first president. Bush was your last.
I could live with Rudy if I had too.
McCain, absolutely no way in hell will I ever vote for him.
McCain has had a LOT to do with the attacks on conservatism over the past few years. No way he gets my vote.
Seems as if the rerubicans are lost.
In 2000 I thought/said "the grown ups have won."
I was wrong.
GROW UP! ///AND SOON! or it's to late,
Okay. Let's assume this is true. Is there no one on the scene? How about Romney?
The point of my thread is simply this: McCain cannot be a default candidate. Neither our party nor our nation should have to endure this.
I don't know enough about Romney yet.
I don't either. But, I've been talking to people in his inner circle and will have more information for all of us to consider.
Stay tuned. Whether Romney or someone else, McCain is not riding our white horse.
Frist? Don't make me laugh.
Brownback? Maybe, but he has almost no visibility, and it's just about too late for him to start getting it.
Romney? Besides his liberalism, they'll flog him to death with his Mormonism.
Rice? Forget about it. She's never run for elected office and she doesn't want it anyway.
George Allen was probably our best bet, but after that CF of a campaign the RNC will change the locks on the doors if he even hints at a run, and who can blame them? Haley Barbour would be a good one, but I don't think he'll want to leave Mississippi while they're still rebuilding, and besides, no one's groomed him for a run.
That's the major problem - the party's had eight friggin' years to find someone and build him up and prep him for 2008, seeing as they've known that Cheney would not run, and they've done nothing!
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