McCain's Been Down BeforeLike the
Fourth of July, 1968:
The Rabbit and I sat there for a few moments staring at each other in silence before he angrily dismissed me.
"Now it will be very bad for you, Mac Kane. Go back to your room."
I did as instructed and awaited the moment when the Rabbit's prediction would come true.
That same day [July 4, 1968] my father assumed command of all U.S. forces in the Pacific.
Let me point out as well that in the much-reported fund-raising discussion, McCain did not do all that poorly. McCain dropped from $13 million to $11.2 million. Romney saw an even larger decline, from $20.5 million to $14 million (although he "loaned" $6.5 million to his campaign so he could claim to have kept pace with the earlier quarter). Giuliani did manage to bump his numbers a bit, but it was only from $16.6 million to $17 million.
I also tend to think that "lending" money to one's own campaign is the kind of thing that makes future donors nervous. If I contribute to Mitt Romney's campaign today, is that money going to go towards campaign ads and phone banks? Or is Mitt going to put it back in his pocket? We hear a lot about how much money Mitt has on hand ($12 million to McCain's $2 million), but Romney loaned something like $2.5 million to his campaign in the first quarter and $6.5 million in the second, so Romney's total is artificially inflated by $9 million in money that he presumably does not want to spend.
Labels: John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani
