Straight Talking McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. John McCain, often mentioned as a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2008, has reactivated his political action committee, known as Straight Talk America.

"He's inundated with invitations and requests from candidates at all levels of the ballot as well as state and local party committees," a McCain political adviser, John Weaver, said Wednesday.

The committee will help pay for McCain's travel when he gives speeches and allow him to contribute to candidates and party committees.

Weaver said McCain's committee was reactivated in mid-July.

McCain, who ran for president in 2000, fares well in early presidential polling among Republican voters. He dismisses questions about 2008, saying he will wait until after the 2006 election to decide about his political future.

...McCain originally started the PAC — named after his 2000 campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express — soon after suspending his presidential campaign in March 2000.

He wanted his causes to remain in public view and his political options open. The senator closed the committee in the spring of 2003, ahead of his re-election.

McCain's campaign for the 2008 presidential race has officially started.

Of course, his campaign for the presidency has unofficially been ongoing since he challenged Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000.

Straight talking McCain is an oxymoron, with the emphasis on "moron."BRENDAN MINITER writes an insightful piece about the McCain Myth.

He explains that "[t]he moderation that makes him a Senate powerhouse will keep him out of the White House.

Miniter writes:
The myth is simply that the only way to win elections is to draw voters from the other party by bucking a few of your own party's principles. Call it "maverick moderatism," but this belief has been the foundation for Mr. McCain's strategy for achieving national office and has given us great ideas like the recent iteration of campaign finance reform, opposition to some tax cuts and dogged attacks by Mr. McCain on some military expenditures. It's also the foundation of many pundits' advice to the president that he pick more "moderate" judges, give up on using payroll taxes to create private Social Security accounts, and trim his sails on fighting terrorism by spreading freedom.

...What the McCain Myth ignores is that for now a majority of voters nationwide embrace conservative principles. Talk of being a "compassionate conservative" notwithstanding, it wasn't maverick moderatism that handed President Bush victories in 2000 and 2004. Nor has the McCain Myth been responsible for padding Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Indeed, Republicans have been winning by sticking to their principles and not bucking their party's ideas on tax cuts, national defense or reforming the judiciary.

Miniter points out the McCain's political philosophy, while helping to "wield tremendous power in the Senate, where there are plenty of mushy moderates," won't get him very far on the national stage.

"[T]he idea that it's a political philosophy that will propel Republicans into the White House is a myth that this President Bush has long since dispelled."

Even with the adoring MSM to promote him, I think McCain has a better chance of finding success in Hollywood pursuing an acting career than in Washington serving as the President of the United States.