While we Americans prepared to celebrate our Nation’s birthday, John McCain was visiting our southern neighbors to discuss free trade. (MEXICO TRIP). Why? Because either Mr. McCain or his advisors thought a trip just before the 4th of July to discuss NAFTA, a topic wildly unpopular in key battleground states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, would be beneficial. Was it? Doubtful. Republicans, myself included, have criticized the timing and necessity of the trip. (HERE). Moreover, his trip did not generate much news, it was overshadowed by the FARC hostage rescue (HERE), and any news that Mr. McCain’s trip did generate went mostly unnoticed because it was the 4TH OF JULY!
Mr. McCain’s ridiculous free trade trip won’t be the death knell of his campaign, but I do think it will signal the nadir of a very poor spring and early summer. Mr. McCain’s campaign has done nothing to capitalize on Mr. Obama’s recent torrent of flip flops, policy changes, and reservations of rights to change positions in the future. Mr. McCain has placed himself in a difficult position. Stuart Rothenberg posits, “[t]his isn’t a tough climb for McCain — it’s a veritable Mount Everest.” (ARTICLE HERE). On the positive side, Mr. McCain loves to be the underdog – and despite a terrible June eclipsed only by Mr. Obama’s even more terrible month, he’s remaining close in the polls (POLLING DATA HERE).
Mr. McCain, and his new campaign manager, would be wise to read the articles (HERE) and (HERE).
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July 16, 2008 at 9:56 am
[...] I recognize that mid-July polls don’t mean much. Mr. McCain’s ability to narrow the gap in the polls this early in the Summer is, however, worth noting. By all accounts, Mr. McCain has not run a great campaign thus far. He’s fired key staff (HERE), his campaign has been off message, has failed to take the initiative and define Barack Obama (HERE) and has made poor strategy calls. (see HERE). [...]