Posted on 02/08/2008 11:59:58 AM PST by indcons
John McCain has retained the services of a conservative public relations firm to assist with right-wing outreach.
Shirley & Banister, well-connected in both conservative and mainstream media circles, have been helping McCain for a few weeks now placing surrogates on TV and in news stories. They also helped craft an open letter sent out earlier this week signed by five longtime "Reaganauts" -- Craig Shirely, Frank Donatelli, Jack Kemp, Dick Allen and Peter Hannaford -- urging their fellow followers of the Gipper get on board.
The firm is led by Shirley and Diana Banister. Shirley is longtime conservative consultant who is coming out with his second book on Reagan this summer. Banister worked in the GOP vineyards in Orange County and later the Dole and Buchanan campaigns.
Part of their task will be countering the anti-McCain assault from conservative talk show hosts.
Shirley, who accompanied McCain to CPAC yesterday, said the open letter he and the other "Reaganauts" issued has already caused a stir.
"Sean Hannity read it on the air [Wednesday] and dismisseed the five of us as 'pseudo-conservatives' who knew nothing about Ronald Reagan," Shirley said.
"I'd say between the five of us, we have probably put 200 years or more into the movement and Reaganism -- and all spent considerable personal time with the Gipper and working for him."
A conservative PR firm that dismisses Rush!
LOL! Have at it boys. One disaster deserves another.
He understands the Conservative issues so much he had to hire someone to remind him what they were. /s
“Sorry, Senator...we’re not miracle workers.”
You can put lipstick on a pig, but........it's still a pig.
Yeah, that’ll work.
McCain a conservative?! Shirley, you jest.
No, I'm serious. And don't call me Shirley.
“Banister worked in the GOP vineyards in Orange County and later the Dole and Buchanan campaigns.”
And just how did that work out?
By this definition, they are prostitutes.
Until he fires Juan Hernandez, no sale.
Prediction:
I think we are going to get so sick of the stretched out term ‘Conservative’ that we are going to consult a thesaurus and a liguistics expert to come up with another word for it.
We won’t even recognize it in November it’ll be so badly distorted by then.
I was actually thinking during his CPAC speech that:
a) He had to hire someone who understood conservatism to write it for him, and insert all the right buzz words; and
b) He’d have to go to “Conservative School” to actually learn how to be one.
I guess hiring a PR Firm to do it for him was the easier option.
PR? it’s more like damage control
Between Rush and Hannity, that’s 6 hours a day. McCain must be richer than Bill Gates to buy all that air time.
He’s getting more insane every day.
Great track record. The tax collector for the welfare state and an isolationist nutjob.
I’m sure the Pope must have a price too. [/sarc]
Gonna need a lot of glue to get peacock feathers on this turkey.
That’s the thing, a real conservative would not need to hire a PR firm to reach out to conservatives.
Be that as it may, I’ll still probably end up pulling the lever for him. Because I despite the Dems too much.
“John McCain has retained the services of a conservative public relations firm to assist with right-wing outreach.”
That’s a long reach!
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