Genuine John Returns

By Lee Bandy
SouthCarolina Insider

(10/12/07) Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is back after having been given up for dead two months ago.

For most of 2007, McCain remained the prohibitive favorite among GOP voters. No one else came close.

Then suddenly his campaign began to come apart at the seams. It had been swollen with overhead and consultants.

It wasn’t long before the campaign reported a financial crises. It was broke.

Roughly half his staff left or was let go. His longtime political soulmate, John Weaver, split. McCain was left alone to run his campaign.

Meanwhile, the national media began to write McCain’s political obituary.

One could almost feel the fallen leader’s polling numbers dropping toward the single digits.

Amazingly, the Arizona senator’s campaign is very much alive today. He has regained most of his lost ground.

What brought about the change?

McCain was helped by progress in Iraq and a strong showing in a recent New Hampshire debate.

Today, the old John McCain is back, saying what he means and letting the chips fall where they may. He is much more comfortable campaigning as an insurgent than as a insider.

He returned to South Carolina with his unique brand of straight talk coupled with unwavering conviction for causes he believes are in the nation’s best interest.

He drew large crowds.

“What we are seeing is a genuine John McCain on the stump,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime McCain supporter.

Republican pollster Whit Ayres said McCain’s campaign lacked good money managers.

The campaign burned through most of the $24 million raised in the first half of 2007.

“They spent too much money,” Ayres said.” adding, “Nothing changed his attractiveness as a candidate. They just didn’t have the money to communicate it.”

In interviews with reporters traveling aboard the “Straight Talk Express,” McCain says he is happy with the way things are going. He declined to talk about the internal strife and financial crisis that threatened to engulf his campaign.

“We’re going to be just fine,” he assured skeptical reporters.

But political experts question whether McCain will be able to recover completely and say with certainty that he is back.

“Anything is possible but unlikely. He has very little money,” said University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato.

He added, “This McCain campaign is becoming a nostalgia tour.”

Clemson University professor Dave Woodard doesn’t see how McCain is going to make it back.

“My (Clemson University) poll says, ‘no.’ My hunch says pretty much the same thing. I don’t see how he can be re-made.”

Recent public opinion surveys show McCain is viewed less favorably by voters today than he was four years ago.

“I don’t see it. Polls show that he isn’t that well liked. His negatives are too high,” Woodaard

Richard Quinn, a Columbia-based consultant retained by McCain, called his client, “the comeback kid.”

”McCain has regrouped,” Quinn said. “He has gotten rid of consultants and established a grass-roots campaign. We have a lean, mean campaign.”

“What we got back is the old John McCain…We can see his numbers are back on the rise.”

McCain has adopted a two-state strategy. He says he must win New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary and then head to South Carolina to participate in the first contest conducted in a red state.

McCain is competing with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee for their party’s nomination. Lesser known candidates are also running

“These candidates have long ways to go,” Graham said. “But John McCain is back.”