Free Republic

Ten days before the 2008 presidential election, as blame was beginning to be laid out for John McCain’s “likely defeat,” a top communications adviser to the campaign wrote a detailed strategy memo focused on how to preserve the reputation of another key adviser, Steve Schmidt, POLITICO has learned. *** The protective maneuver sheds more light on the final days of the 2008 campaign, a period of low morale marked by tensions between the Palin and McCain camps and the expectation of defeat. *** “Thankfully, and rightfully so, some members of the political punditry are already coming his defense (Rove, McKinnon,...

Claims that the charges against McCain are “unsourced” leave out one source that is prominently mentioned: John Weaver.So – who is he, and can he be believed? I recall that Weaver’s name was directly associated with the stories, delivered to the press in the 2004 Bush-Kerry contest, that McCain was flirting with an offer floated by Kerry to become Kerry’s running mate. In the retelling of that story by the Kerry people, the person who is square in the middle of the discussions and negotiations was -- John Weaver. When McCain’s campaign was imploding, back in the fall 07, because...

Interviewing Rick Davis, chairman of John McCain's presidential exploratory committee, on MSNBC at about 11:45 AM today, NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell [NB file photo] demanded to know why McCain had hired Terry Nelson as his campaign manager. She described Nelson as "the man who was behind that dreadful commercial against Harold Ford. This is John McCain, the victim of these kinds of attacks in the South Carolina primary and other primaries back in 2000." "Dreadful"? How about "funny and on the mark"? Who declared the ad "dreadful" other than the DNC and the MSM? Could Andrea be taking her...