Rudy's Endorsement Just a Start for McCain Team
By Juliet Eilperin
ABOARD THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN PLANE -- Sen. John McCain's (R-Fla.) campaign manager Rick Davis still speaks about Rudy Giuliani's endorsement of his boss in the future tense. But he's happy to tell reporters what it means for the senator's presidential bid.
"I don't think there's a high propensity of his support to go to McCain," Davis said. While yesterday's Florida exit polls showed the former New York mayor's backers split evenly between picking McCain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as their second choice, Davis said he believed the bulk of them would flock to his candidate once Giuliani endorsed him.
"Rudy's vote will probably follow Rudy," he said, adding that while they were still hoping for a nod from former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, those voters scattered once he ducked out of the race. "Fred Thompson could have endorsed us and none of his vote could have gone to us."
The campaign has been bringing in between $2 and $4 million a week from donors since the first of the month; Davis predicted Giuliani's financial backers may also now turn their attention to McCain. "It's all fresh money, so it's good news," he said.
Looking ahead to Super Tuesday, Davis cautioned that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee could inject uncertainty into the outcome by winning several Southern states. "Huckabee still seems to have some ability to win a vote," he said. "He has a more likely chance of winning February fifth states than Romney."
Winning Giuliani's endorsement wasn't hard, Davis explained: "I just answered my phone." Davis spoke to senior Giuliani aide Tony Carbonetti yesterday "when the polls were still open," and McCain followed up with a phone call to Giuliani this morning.
"I've know Tony for a long time, we're good friends," Davis said. "You don't have to say a lot."
Davis added the campaign would be eying Giuliani's camp for potential hires, since when it comes to hiring political types, "they don't find these guys on street corners."
"Winning solves a lot of problems. It solves money problems, it solves personnel problems," he said.
Even Giuliani's elaborate motorcade might be up for grabs. "He's got more cars than us," Davis observed. "Maybe he can lend us a few. I'll have to check out the [Federal Election Commission] rules on that."
Posted at 5:18 PM ET on Jan 30, 2008
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Posted by: laurazzcap | January 31, 2008 10:20 AM | Report abuse
Rick Davis is almost as full of crap as Juan McCain is.
Juan won't get a single vote from Fred conservatives and they know it which is why the jerk offered "scattered".
Candidate Research - Know Who You're Voting For ( The Easy Way ) http://tinyurl.com/2sowta
Posted by: Winghunter | January 31, 2008 2:00 AM | Report abuse
Everyone has to check out the article "White Voters with a Side of Hispanics" on the blogzine Savage Politics. This is an awesome discussion and analysis on the current Democrat and GOP candidates and their eligibility.
www.savagepolitics.com
Here is an excerpt: "Tuesday night's Florida Primary was a very important episode in the drama in which both the Republican and Democrat Parties are unfolding towards the Presidency of the United States. It also dramatically demonstrated the incredible bias that the Media continues to display towards the Democratic hopeful Barack Obama, in spite of all the evidence pointing to his lack of viability. From MSNBC's Chris Mathews, who openly stated the day before that any Network that decided to report on the Democratic voting results in Florida was proving a "gross" favoritism for Hillary (ironically enough his Network ended up having to cover it nevertheless), to CNN's pundits, who continuously utilized the exact same rhetoric that the Obama Campaign was spewing to excuse their defeat ("Beauty Pageant" was their favorite phrase, with all the sexist connotations it implies). All the same, the Florida results in the Democratic side were overwhelmingly favorable to Hillary Clinton, who won a 50% margin, to Obama's 33%, Edwards' 14%, and Gravel's 1%. On the Republican side, it was John McCain who came out victorious with a 36% margin, to Romney's 31%, Giuliani's 15%, Huckabee's 14%, and Paul's 3%. Let's discuss each Party's results and their realistic consequence.
First, we have the very significant victory of John McCain. His candidacy was, from the very start, labeled as a failure due to his unpopularity amongst most "base" Republicans, much of it owed to McCain's overwhelmingly dubious record on Conservative issues. His notorious tendency to side with multiple (highly despised) Democrats on issues like Immigration, Bush's Tax Cuts and other measures, have always been enough to marginalize him from even the "moderate wing" within his Party. Still, when the Florida Exit Polls are analyzed, they reflect many unexpected re-alignments in his favor. Evangelical/Born Again Christians voted for John McCain in a 30% margin, in comparison to both Romney's and Huckabee's 29%. This may seem like an insignificant difference, but when you also consider that the majority of non-Evangelicals (Catholics, Atheist, etc.) also..." Find the rest of the article at http://savagepolitics.com/?p=64
Posted by: elsylee28 | January 30, 2008 6:11 PM | Report abuse
McCain tooling around in Rudy's bus? That's a scene...
Posted by: parkerfl | January 30, 2008 5:54 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
No way Fred Thompson supporters will flock to McCain which is why Fred would be wise not to endorse anyone. This former Fred Thompson supporter in Tennessee is going a step further. No campaign contributions to the Republican Party if they all jump on the McCain bandwagon. I think those people voting for Huckabee, who don't like McCain, should be very careful of where his delegates might wind up should they throw in for him and he winds up endorsing McCain for a shot at the VP job.