The McCain makeover

NY Times:

Lagging in fund-raising and under fire for his support of the Iraq war, Senator John McCain is overhauling his campaign finance operation and delaying the official announcement of his candidacy, his aides said Tuesday.

They said he would adopt the kind of big-donor fund-raising program pioneered by President Bush and give a speech explaining his support for the administration’s troop buildup in Iraq.

The maneuvers come at a time of sharp anxiety in Mr. McCain’s camp, especially over his fund-raising, which is trailing all the major Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

The concern grew after his visit to Iraq over the weekend, when he asserted that conditions there were improving.

Mr. McCain’s aides said that to deal with his fund-raising problems, he would adopt what had been a centerpiece of Mr. Bush’s fund-raising technique, and one that has been embraced by most major presidential candidates: creating an honorary campaign designation to reward the campaign’s top money raisers. Mr. Bush called his Rangers and Pioneers; Mr. McCain will call his the McCain 100’s, for supporters who collect $100,000 for the campaign, and the McCain 200’s, who collect $200,000.

Mr. McCain has been identified throughout his career as an advocate of curbing the influence of money in politics, notably as a co-sponsor of a landmark bill limiting political contributions. He criticized Mr. Bush, when the two were opponents in 2000, as leading overly aggressive fund-raising efforts.

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McCain's problems have nothing to do with the war. There is no one in the Republican field who is anti war that gets even one percent in the polls. Reporters who want to lose the war did not like his statements supporting the troops' accomplishment in the surge, but no Republican are anyone else who wants to win the war is going to get their support.

McCain is pretty candid about his problem in raising money. He does not like to do it and he is not very good at it and if he is going to be competitive he will have to do a better job. I think his assessment is pretty accurate. I also think that McCain-Feingold hurts him, not so much in its legal limits but in continuing political blow back from would be donors who are still angry about its assault on freedom of speech.