Not Now John McCain

David Weigel | April 2, 2007

The Republican side of the fundraising reports is coming in. Mitt Romney basically tied Hillary Clinton, with $23 million raised from his rolodex fattened by decades in venture capitalism. Rudy Giuliani earned a strong $15 million, $10 million of that in March. John McCain came in... third, with $12.5. Less money than Democratic also-ran John Edwards. The Hotline's blog dances around the gallows pole:

6. The media will treat this as a grevious, potentially fatal wound. It's not, but it's not outpatient surgery either. We're talking enemas, muscle scrapings, and lots of pain -- in the short term.

7. When McCain returns from Iraq, he'll give what his campaign bills as a major speech. Then he'll officially (again) launch his presidential committee with a multi-state tour. Consider these a reset.

8. Why aren't institutional Republican donors giving to McCain yet?

9. Does McCain have more than $5M CoH?

10. The response from a rival campaign manager: "Wow." The response from a rival communications director: "Wow." The response from a McCain sympathizer who IM'd us: "FX@#&*)"

Yeah, seriously. The man has been running for president since he released his delegates to Bush in 2000, and he's getting shellacked by a habitual cross-dresser and a man named "Willard." Matt Welch's cover story is growing less relevant - but no less readable! - by the day. This as Joel Kotkin uses the pages of McCain's newspaper to bury "the Sun Belt mafia" McCain was resting his hopes with.

Comments

|4.2.07 @ 3:08PM|#

Mitt Romney basically tied Hillary Clinton

This really boggles. The Clintons should have the best money-raising machine in the known universe, and she tied . . . wait for it . . . Mitt Romney ?I?

|4.2.07 @ 3:09PM|#

8. Why aren't institutional Republican donors giving to McCain yet?

Maybe after funding 8 years of stupid they decided to let crazy fund itself!

|4.2.07 @ 3:25PM|#

8. Why aren't institutional Republican donors giving to McCain yet?

He's a maverick. He scares the pants off of all the squares. When asked, "What are you rebelling against, Johnny?" His response was classic McCain: "Whataya got?"

|4.2.07 @ 3:30PM|#

RC,

I don't think it boggles, so much as enlightens. For all of the fundraising advantages Hillary has gained from being so closely involved in poltics at the very highest level for so many years...

...a virtual unknown with a background in venture capital is pretty much on a level playing field with her.

|4.2.07 @ 3:34PM|#

I wonder how much of that $12.5 million it would take to buy every media outlet's copies of the footage of him strolling around Baghdad to show how safe it was, while surrounded by his 100-soldier escort, with blackhawks and apaches overhead, wearing a kevlar vest?

PoliticalCritic|4.2.07 @ 3:37PM|#

McCain is growing more and more irrelevant. With his bizarre comments about the safety in Iraq, his fundraising numbers will get even worse.

|4.2.07 @ 3:40PM|#

Nothing more embarrassing than a publicty stunt gone awry.

|4.2.07 @ 3:41PM|#

Captain Willard?

Jim Henley|4.2.07 @ 4:10PM|#

Go on, laugh. But if McCain redeploys those 100 armed men and three attack helicopters he'll be able to get quite a bit of "fundraising" done.

And de stijl? You get a laugh point.

|4.2.07 @ 4:13PM|#

anyone with a blogpost title explainer?

Any late period Pink Floyd fans out there?

Maggie|4.2.07 @ 4:19PM|#

Oi! Where's the fucking bar, John?

|4.2.07 @ 5:05PM|#

Matt,

You beat me to it. I'm surprised that Dave (or anyone, really) is familiar with The Final Cut.

|4.2.07 @ 5:30PM|#

This is obviously because McCain is very selective in the ways he raises money..."appearance of corruption" and all.

|4.2.07 @ 5:43PM|#

I am curious how much of Romney's money has LDS fingerprints on it. And if it is a lot, how the expected return on investment might affect a Mormon administration. I know I know.
But I wonder how much of Bush's staying the course is out of a christian assurance that he is doing the right thing. Maybe even doing things he believes are ordained of God.
I do believe we would be better lead by a person not bound by their faith in key decision making.
Money wins races, and the LDS church has lots of it. If you've lived in southern Idaho or Utah, you know that the mormon church wields a lot of control on local politics and business. I cant imagine they would change their ways if they had a member in the whitehouse.

|4.2.07 @ 6:40PM|#

I knew a Willard, once. He was an errand boy sent by grocery clerks. Not presidential material, in my opinion.

I'm voting for McCain. He, like me, knows the horrors of war. His foreign policy was rammed into his skull like he was shot with a diamond. . .a diamond bullet right through his forehead.

|4.2.07 @ 7:18PM|#

Get used to it folks -

President Romney

I don't like it any more than the rest of you, but its coming. No repubs will be able to beat him in the primaries and then really - will Hillary or Obama have a chance?

Unless the Dems somehow get realistic and nominate Bill Richardson, this thing is already over.

Elf M. Sternberg|4.2.07 @ 8:54PM|#

Oh, come on. The Final Cut and Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking are two of Waters' best works. I mean, "Not now John, we gotta get on with these. Gotta compete with the wily Japanese. No need to worry about the Vietnamese (hahahahaha!)."

Now I'm gonna have that song stuck in my head all day.

|4.2.07 @ 9:30PM|#

brotherben

The LDS church is a predominant force in the Mountain west from southern Alberta (a candidate for the 51st state for any Manifest Dentiny-ers out there) to Arizona (it is essentially the plurality religion of the region; something like a third of the population). Nevertheless the politics of the region is still pretty much secular.

From Reed Smoot through Frank Church through Orrin Hatch prominent Mormon politicians mat have left their distinctive marks. But furthering the establishment of Zion on Earth has not been one of them. As near as I can tell, polygamy is not the only issue on which "The Saints" have learned to compromise with the "Gentiles".

My complaint with Mitt is that however smart and competent he may be he has shown himself to be a typical modern political weathervane. Turning wherever the winds of the polls may blow.

In the 1960s his father was presented with an extradition request from Mississippi. The defendant was a black man who had been arrested in that state many years before but had somehow escaped and made his way to Michigan. George Romney refused the request on the grounds that the man had lived an exemplary life in his state for over twenty years and that furthermore he had serious doubts as to whether the man had been justly accused in the first place.

I really cannot see Mitt taking such a position today.

|4.3.07 @ 7:43AM|#

Turning wherever the winds of the polls may blow.

Do you really think anyone else is going to get elected in this day and age?

Well, there is Bush and his faith. But all having faith means these days, is that the bearings are a little rusty in the weather vane.

|4.3.07 @ 11:03AM|#

Do you really think anyone else is going to get elected in this day and age?

Actually,I know it has probably always been thus.

But i really do miss Republicans like Barry Goldwater and George Romney who at least had the appearance of being principled.

Oh, wait, the first lost in a landslide to probably the sleaziest crook who ever held the office and the other saw his political carreer go down the drain for telling the truth.