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Posted: July 9, 2007 6:41 PM
McCain Rallies in Iraq as Pundits Weigh-in on Future of Campaign
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A week after shaking up his staff, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., returned for another visit to Iraq, visiting troops and getting an update on the situation many analysts say may decide the fate of his presidential hopes.

On July 4th, the senator, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., attended ceremonies in Baghdad where almost 600 U.S. troops re-enlisted and almost 200 other troops took citizenship oaths. Addressing the soldiers, McCain said, “Many of you have served multiple tours here or in Afghanistan. And I know that we could not expect you or your families to be happy about this deployment. I expect a few of you might not have received the news without a few appropriate complaints aimed in the general direction of people like me, who have helped make the decision to send you here again.”

After leaving Iraq, the senator traveled to France to meet with President Nicholas Sarkozy, the newly elected conservative leader there. He returned to the United States over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the fallout from McCain campaign’s announcement that it had only $2 million in cash-on-hand continued. In an article in Tuesday’s New York Times Carl Hulse and Adam Nagourney outlined the staff changes the campaign made in the wake of the poor fundraising showing. The reporters said between 50 and 80 of the senator’s 150-person staff were let go. In addition, the senator lost half of his campaign staff in Iowa, including his state director.

Over the holiday weekend, the media reported major staff shakeups in South Carolina and Florida. The Politico’s Jonathan Martin blogged on July 5 that the loss of political directors in the early primary states “underscores the depth of McCain’s perilous fiscal situation.” Martin followed up with another post on July 6 detailing the campaign’s staff cuts in New Hampshire.

The Politico’s Jeanne Cummings and David Paul Kuhn also wrote Tuesday that the senator’s money problems were a symptom of his lack of support in the Republican base: “A once front-running candidacy is clinging to life, and at bottom the problems are about McCain’s complicated relationship with the Republican Party’s activist base. Simply put, there is scant evidence that nearly seven years of effort since his failed 2000 bid to cultivate and reassure these people have paid any dividends.”

But those stories seem almost sunny compared with the particularly bleak assessment offered by Ryan Sager of the New York Sun, who quipped “spread some butter on this guy — he’s toast.”

But not all the media analysis seemed as grim as Sager’s, with some helpful pieces assessing how McCain can get his campaign back on track. Philip Rawls of the Associate Press wrote Thursday that the senator should emphasize his time as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And Sue Casey of the New Hampshire Concord Monitor writes that the key for McCain is gaining back the maverick image that propelled him to victory in the Granite State in 2000.

McCain will start the process of reviving his campaign this week with a number of fundraisers and events in various states. He is schedule to attend a fundraiser in New York on Monday and then is planning to attend a breakfast in Wilmington, Del. on Thursday.

The campaign will be releasing the dates of other events as the week continues. The campaign also announced its 13-member leadership organization in Plymouth County, Iowa.