McCain the front-runner

For all the braying by the media-hounds about the place Senator McCain holds in the hearts and minds of the electorate, Patrick Ruffini's straw-poll sheds some unwelcome light on the theory.

Some quick background: Ruffini has recently hosted two internet 'straw polls' designed to show support for Republican Presidential hopefuls in 2008. Here are the results for the most recent.

Apparently the reviews are in order by result. In other words, the 'winner' reviewed first, and so on down the line. Seems the only explanation for having to scroll so far down the page to read his summary about McCain:

McCain: Vermont, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York. These states would all be near the bottom of Republican support in a general election, but they adorn John McCain’s top 10. His support is concentrated conspicuously along the Northeast Metroliner Corridor – guaranteeing him frontrunner coverage in the MSM. His home state of Arizona is well down the list with an 8% McCain vote, less than half of what he gets in D.C. This seems low, except it’s nearly double what he gets in neighboring Western states: NV (4.2%) and CO (3.1%). McCain and Chuck Hagel are apparently the favorites of lefty trolls crossover voters as results from Balloon Juice and RedState seem to indicate. In a less mischievous vein, are non-Republicans in loose screen national media polls driving up McCain’s numbers from their lows among Republican activists in forums such as this one?

Read those top 5 again closely. Republican support for McCain in so-called Red states is low. Very low.

Now contrast that with things like this.

Fox News exclusive

That's how Fox News billed Senator McCain's appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday. From what I saw of it, it was pretty much par for the course: hawkish to the last on Iraq, hard on the perpetrators of problems-most-people-don't-care-about, i.e. Baseball and steroids, and somewhat deferential, if not supportive of the President.

What was noteable to me, was Chris Wallace's question about McCain's relationship with the Republican base:

WALLACE: When we announced that you were going to be our guest today, I got, I think it's fair to say, a fair number of e-mails from conservatives saying, "Why are you putting that guy on the show?" And basically the drift of these were: He's too liberal, he undercuts his leadership in the Senate, he's not loyal to his party.

MCCAIN: Uh-huh.

WALLACE: Why do you think some conservatives have a problem with John McCain?

The answer?

MCCAIN: Oh, I think there are certain conservatives that will never forgive me for running against President Bush, and there are some people who just simply will not agree with me on certain issues. And that's fine. That's what the - that's what our Republican Party should be about.

That's the closest thing to a reason we got. The rest of the answer is nothing but preening about his Presidential-prowess:

I would also note that when you look at polls of all Republicans, as well as Independents and Democrats, that -- but particularly Republicans -- I stand very, very high in approval of the majority of Republicans. There are those out there, in my view, on the extreme that will never accept me, and as much as that might pain me, I understand it.

But I'm very pleased that candidates for office always seek for me to campaign for them. I was privileged to speak at the Republican Convention in New York in behalf of the president, and I'm pleased that the overall support that I have.

So is that it? Do we here at Blogs for McCain's Opponent dislike the Senator simply because he had the gall to run for President in 2000?

With all due respect Senator, you need to apply a little more brain power and time to this question!

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John McCain and The Reform Institute

The Reform Institute is John McCain and John McCain is The Reform Institute. So says Ryan Sager in this op-ed piece today.

If members of the national media are anything more than lapdogs for the war-hero, "maverick" senator, they'll start asking some tough questions about a bogus little think tank in Alexandria, Va., called the Reform Institute.

According to the inside-the-beltway paper Roll Call, McCain has stepped down as chairman of the Reform Institute, citing "negative publicity" from earlier this year when it was discovered that the Institute was accepting large cash contributions from businesses with interests before the Senate Commerce Committee.

At the time, McCain was chairman of the Commerce Committee (he no longer is, due to committee term limits).

Sager points to an AP investigation in March which revealed, among other things, that:

Cablevision Systems Corp. cut two checks, each for $100,000, to the Reform Institute in July of 2003 and August of 2004.

* The first check was solicited by Rick Davis — McCain's chief political adviser and president of the Reform Institute — just one week after Cablevision chief Charles Dolan testified before the Commerce Committee in favor of "a la carte" pricing (which would allow cable customers to pick and choose the channels they subscribe to).


* Just 12 days after the second check was cut, McCain wrote to Dolan, urging him to "feel free to contact me and discuss these issues further."

In layman's terms we would call this an appearance of impropriety. As Sager points out: one would have to believe that Cablevision was just really, really interested in clean government — not buying access to a powerful senator.

As if such isn't problematic enough, Sager goes on to hoist McCain with his own pitard on the issue of campaign financing. In summary, it appears, that McCain is very attached to the Reform Institute (his resignation as chairman not withstanding) and that the Reform Institute is very attached to McCain. How much so?

Consider that:

-The Institute is housed in the same location as the Senator's re-election committee, PAC and a top-adviser's lobbying firm.

-Two of McCain's 2000 Presidential campaign staffers, Rick Davis and Trevor Potter have been compensated by the Institute. Davis received a $110,000 annual salary until his recent change in status to unpaid volunteer. In fairness, former McCain counsel Potter was not paid directly by the Institute but his firm, according to Sager, has in fact collected fees from the Institute. Again, us simple folks call such an appearance of impropriety.

Sager closes his op-ed with very pointed, and in my opinion, very concise criticism of McCain:

McCain's dealings are not something he or his speech-police compatriots would accept from anyone else in politics. Anonymous donations, in particular, are seen by such folks as utterly toxic.

Changing the window dressing is not enough. John McCain is the Reform Institute, and the Reform Institute is John McCain. Either he should bring it up to the standards he sets for everyone else, or he should get off the high horse he plans to ride into the White House three years from now.

Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom weighs in on Sager's piece and closes with pointed remarks of his own:

It’s one thing to co-author legislation that, when all is said and done, will do more to weaken the First Amendment than just about any piece of legislation ever signed into law; it is quite another, however, to insist everyone else’s free speech be regulated while reserving for yourself special dispensation.

Unless of course “maverick” means “above the law.” In which case, carry on, Senator. Fight the good fight. After all, if anybody knows what’s best for us, it’s the guy who doesn’t trust us to speak freely.