Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:<\/p>\n
* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) probably expects to suffer politically a bit for his support of Bush’s policies in Iraq, but probably not this much. A new LA Times poll<\/a> shows that more than a third of Americans (36%) said they would be “much less likely” to back McCain’s presidential campaign because of support for escalation. Among independents, the number is 43%.<\/p>\n * Rumor has it that Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is gearing up to announce his second presidential campaign sometime in the next few weeks. Yesterday, Kerry sounded a little defensive<\/a> about the 2004 race: “Look, we won the nomination, and we came damn close to winning, and people better go back and check the history books as to how hard it is to beat a sitting president in a time of war. The mood has changed like night and day from when I was running in ’04 to where we are now. If it had been two months later, three months later, you’d have had a very different mood.”<\/p>\n * For what it’s worth (at this point, only a little), Zogby has new polls<\/a> out of Iowa and New Hampshire for both sides’ presidential aspirants. In Iowa, Edwards leads the Dem field with 27%, followed by Obama (17%), Clinton (16%), and Vilsack (16%). On the other side of the aisle, Giuliani is on top with 19%, followed by McCain with 17%. In New Hampshire, Obama leads with 23%, followed by Clinton (19%) and Edwards (19%). McCain leads the Republican field with 26%, followed by Giuliani (20%), and Romney (13%).<\/p>\n * Speaking of Giuliani, Stu Rothenberg, a prominent non-partisan election analyst, argued yesterday that the former New York City mayor is wasting his time and can’t win<\/a> the GOP nomination: “Giuliani\u2019s strong showing in GOP polling reflects his celebrity status and the reputation he earned after the terrorist attacks. But if and when he becomes a candidate, that will change. He will be evaluated on the basis of different things, including his past and current positions and behavior, and he\u2019ll be attacked by critics and opponents. A Giuliani nomination would also generate a conservative third-party candidate in the general election and tear the GOP apart, thereby undercutting Giuliani\u2019s electability argument.”<\/p>\n