Michigan Politics
McCain Can Rebound From Campaign Woes
By George Weeks

The rush among national pundits to write off beleaguered Senator John McCain's presidential prospects is challenged by his band of brothers in Michigan, where he upset George W. Bush in the 2000 GOP presidential primary.

"For all intents and purposes, McCain's campaign is over," Charlie Cook of the National Journal Group wrote even before the latest round of campaign shakeups in the wake of grim campaign finance reports. "The physicians have pulled up the sheet; the executors of the estate are taking over."

CNN opined his "campaign seems on the verge of collapse." Others talked of "meltdown."

In the wake of all the negative swirl about the McCain campaign, I sat down here for a chat about it with Attorney General Mike Cox, who chairs McCain's Michigan campaign and believes McCain can rebound, as do I.

(Cox and other statewide officeholders, most wearing red shirts, were in Traverse City for Saturday's closing National Cherry Festival parade, Michigan's biggest annual single-day, large crowd bipartisan strutting of political biggies - although assorted downstate holiday parades also rank well, and Detroit's Labor Day Parade is popular with Democrats. The State Fair and the Upper Peninsula State Fair, as well as the annual Mackinac Island Conference of the Detroit Regional Chamber, attract statewide officeholders over a span of days.)

Cox talked straight about what had derailed McCain's vaunted Straight Talk Express: "His campaign has been horribly run and he's moving to fix it" by, for example, getting a better handle on campaign expenses.

Commendable as it is, Cox said that from a campaign perspective, McCain has "acted too much like a senator, and not enough as a candidate." Time devoted to official chores has "hurt him politically" in such areas as fundraising.

Last week, as ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain teamed with Chairman Carl Levin's floor effort to improve health services for veterans. It played well on C-Span, but what impacts more on the campaign trail are TV ads that the big war chest of ex- Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has enabled him to run.

Michigan's Republican National Committeeman Chuck Yob, who supports McCain, said McCain has "taken a hell- of-a bath" but "he's going to rebound" thanks to "positive changes" being made. His son, John Yob, is McCain's Michigan director and will be in a new office with three staffers, rather than the seven before the shakeup.

Will McCain be in the race by the time in the Michigan GOP holds its primary/convention (device and time yet to be decided)? On Friday in New Hampshire, McCain said the only thing that would prompt him to quit is "contracting a fatal disease."

Meanwhile, Michigan native Romney, son of late Governor George Romney, continues to lead the fundraising race in Michigan. And he just announced a state finance committee that includes 25 from Oakland County - 19 from Bloomfield Hills. One exception: David Brandon of Ann Arbor, CEO of Domino's Pizza.

In other developments last week:

• Although now in the minority in the state House, Republicans have formed five task forces to solicit and tout solutions to Michigan's "jobs and budget crisis." The Tourism Task Force includes two northern representatives: Tom Casperson of Escanaba and David Palsrok of Manistee.

• An online magazine, NewsMax, named U.S. Representative Pete Hoekstra (RHolland) as one of the "Top 25 Most Effective Members of Congress" calling him, among other things, "the House's leading expert on al-Qaida and the war on terror."

Of particular note, included in his office's release on the citation, is that "Hoekstra says he's looking seriously at running for Michigan governor in 2010."

As will many members of Congress and the Legislature when term-limited Governor Jennifer Granholm heads off into the sunset.

George Weeks retired last year after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.