Reaction to John McCain’s “heat week” against Mitt Romney
Posted on June 14th, 2007 at 5:16 pm by Jason Wright, EditorPolitical junkies have been fascinated watching Senator John McCain’s “heat week”. In case you’ve been comatose watching David Hasslehasbeen on America’s Got Talent, Sen. McCain recently escalated his attacks against Mitt Romney.
If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d think McCain was running one-on-one against the former Massachusetts governor. It seems Camp McCain doesn’t think Rudy can run in front much longer. Sure, Rudy’s numbers are still enviable, but there has been slippage in recent weeks as more and more likely voters get to know his positions.
So does McCain view Romney as his chief obstacle to the nomination, or is he just trying to rough him up on the abortion issue in hopes Fred Thompson is paying close attention? Because Fred, as we now know, will have his own ’splainin’ to do about some pro-choice responses on old candidate questionnaires.
McCain isn’t in as much trouble as his opponents would have us believe. But clearly Romney’s operation has surprised them and it shows. Remember, this nomination was to be handed to him in the same way it was gifted to Bob Dole in 1996 like a shiny gold watch after 30 years of service. But if McCain still wants to win this nomination, he’s going to have to chew it off someone’s wrist and go running from the RNC convention hall with the bloody stub.
In case you missed it, here’s what some folks are saying about McCain’s new strategy:
Jake Tapper, ABC: “On Wednesday the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., issued a press release attacking [Romney]… When you probe a little deeper, though, it turns out on that same day, May 27, 2005, Romney was certainly acting like an anti-abortion governor. That day he vetoed a state bill funding embryonic stem cell research because it allowed the cloning of human embryos.”
Tom Edsall, Huffington Post: “[A] last-ditch bid to revive a candidate whose poll numbers and financial resources are dwindling. … If the tactic fails, the McCain campaign may be effectively over.”
Rich Lowry, National Review: “Another sign of McCain’s extraordinary descent so far in this race is that he has been reduced to frontally attacking Romney in June!”
Mickey Kaus, Slate: “The Hail Mitt Play? I don’t quite understand why John McCain is picking a fight with Mitt Romney, given that there are two other GOP contenders who poll better than Romney nationally. Won’t this tactic do for McCain what attacking Howard Dean did for Dick Gephardt?”
Rob Bluey, The Bluey Blog: “McCain’s unprovoked attack on Mitt Romney today … may score political points among the Romney haters, the attack revealed what kind of a campaign McCain intends to run: one that’s full of negativity.”
Carl Cameron, Fox News Channel: “[Romney] lead the polls in the key early states of Iowa and New Hampshire and today got attacked by the McCain campaign on abortion. It came in the form of a statement bashing Romney for claiming to have become pro-life in 2004, but included a video link in which he insisted in 2005 that he would keep abortion legal”. … CAMERON: “In that news conference, both before and after that particular quote, Romney forcefully defended his pro-life conversion. His aides blasted the McCain camp for a, quote, sad and unfortunate move, clearly born out of desperation. McCain may be in the GOP top tier’s deepest rut. First quarter fund raising was so bad, staffers were fired. But now the new folks warn not to expect much improvement, because among other things, McCain’s immigration view has turned off so many Republicans. Once the presumptive establishment favorite, he has fallen to third and in some polls fourth.”
Sam Youngman, The Hill: “The more aggressive assault on rivals came shortly after a close friend and supporter of McCain told The Hill that the campaign is ‘in the doldrums.’”
Race42008: “McCain: A Cornered Cat. McCain it appears has come to the realization that his camp is a sinking ship. With this pretty amazing attacking press release paid for by his campaign and the following YouTube, McCain does the impossible: Bring his Campaigning and his Opposition Research to a new all-time low.”
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Jason, You don’t think McCain is done? What are you smoking? Pick up something good in Peru?
I tend to agree, I think McCain is desperate right now. This is crazy early to be in attack mode.
Yeah right, the only thing I’ve ever smoked are sausages on my grill. (And I burnt those!)
I just think it’s early to count McCain totally out. There is way too much time left and McCain isn’t going to make any big mistakes. He’s not going to raise as much money as the others, but he’ll certainly raise enough to run for president. I think he’s sinking, yes, but not sunk.
Get back to me next week, after the immigration bill’s ressurection and let me know if McCain STILL “isn’t going to make any big mistakes.”
[…] Reaction to John McCain’s “heat week” against Mitt Romney […]
McCain is finished. In less than a month he’ll be 4th in most polls.
[…] ABCNews’ Rick Klein and Jake Tapper are taking cues from the McCain camp. Less than a day after McCains weak broadside at Mitt on the abortion issue, Klein and Tapper splash an article entitled “Romney’s Pro-Life Conversion: Myth or Reality”. While the very headline implies Mitt to be a liar, the factual support for that argument is fundamentally weak. Yes, Mitt appointed democrats as judges during his tenure as Governor of Massachusetts. Newsflash – Massachusetts has a lot of democrats. Some of them are bound to become judges. Turns out that Mitt appointed a [gasp] pro-choice judge to a District Court slot. District Court judges spend most, if not all of their time doing actual trial work rather than deciding constitutional issues. This is mentioned only as a sidenote in the lengthy article. Klein and Tapper also attempt to split hairs about Mitt’s position on stem-cell research and human cloning. They spend an entire section on this issue – something which medical science has written many volumes. While they do quote from Mitt’s campaign that Mitt does support “federal funding for alternative methods to obtain pluripotent stem cells, like direct programming and altered nuclear transfer.” The authors make no attempt to define any of those terms. My guess is the MSM has a cache of similar hit pieces just waiting for an opportune moment. The only problem with this strategy is that there is very little substance for them to use, and Mitt is better at refuting it than they are at slinging mud. I’m throwing a yellow flag at the Brownback campaign for piling on McCain’s Cheap Shot Express. Bad form, Sam. This is not a one-issue campaign. If you want to know what Mitt thinks about stem cells, may I suggest you get it from the man himself. Ditto for his thoughts on the abortion issue. PoliticalDerby editor Jason Wright summarizes McCain’s heat week against Mitt. I can’t resist quoting this paragraph: McCain isn’t in as much trouble as his opponents would have us believe. But clearly Romney’s operation has surprised them and it shows. Remember, this nomination was to be handed to him in the same way it was gifted to Bob Dole in 1996 like a shiny gold watch after 30 years of service. But if McCain still wants to win this nomination, he’s going to have to chew it off someone’s wrist and go running from the RNC convention hall with the bloody stub. Jason, are you trying to infer that McCain has become the Monty Python’s Black Knight of the 2008 Campaign? By the way, McCain’s camp has registered an anti-Mitt domain to which I will not link. Memo to McCain: You don’t want to start focusing on facts, John. Facts are very stubborn things. Michael Gaynor, writing in the Post Chronicle, says Mitt understands the need to fight “radical secularism”. Liberty Papers’ Doug Mataconis declares Mitt to be a “foe” to “individual liberty” because he didn’t sign the American Freedom Agenda’s pledge. Memo to Doug: If the only notable signatory to said petition is Ron Paul, I’d say Mitt’s pretty safe where he’s at. Charlotte Conservative’s Michael Kraft crunches some numbers and says a valid argument can be made to say that Mitt is now the front runner. By the way, Mike, I love the Lindsay Graham countdown clock. The Chicago Daily Herald’s Eric Krol has Mitt’s reaction to the unfortunate result out of the Massachusetts legislature denying the people of the Commonwealth the right to vote on the issue of gay marriage. HuffPo’s Matt Ortega wonders why Ann Coulter has jumped ship from Mitt to Duncan Hunter. Two questions: Has she actually jumped, and does it really matter? The Christian Science Monitor’s Linda Feldmann takes a look at bellwether state polls and sees a Mitt surge. The AP reports that Hillary and Mitt have the most cash of the current presidential field. For the record, Mitt has about five times as much loot as Hillary ever will. Add to that the fact that Mitt made his money the old fashioned way – he actually earned it. The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reports on Mitt’s fundraiser to be held at Fenway. The Article VI Boys think there may be a religious experience to be had there, at least by Dean Barnett. […]