McCain Rebuffs Talk Of Floundering Campaign

June 10, 2007 — -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., disputed the notion by some in the Republican Party that, as a candidate, he's a "dead man walking," in an exclusive interview on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," taped Friday in Pella, Iowa.

"That's what they said this time in 1999," McCain said, "and I'm sure they will say it again. I'm happy with where we are and I'm the one that has to, I think, judge my campaign."

McCain contended that he's ahead or running close in the important early primary states such as New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina.

"I'm very happy where we are, according to the polls that we see," McCain said.

McCain remains solidly in second place nationally, according to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. But this week, he pulled out of the nonbinding Iowa straw poll, to be held in August. It was a move widely seen as an admission by the McCain campaign that they lacked the organization to win the straw poll. McCain will compete in the Iowa caucuses, scheduled for early next year.

McCain remains locked in as a frontrunner for the Republican nomination, along with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, but is no longer considered the favorite to win the nomination, as he was for most of 2006.

The Arizonian has been criticized by members of his own party for supporting, with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., an immigration reform bill that failed in the Senate late Thursday night. He has also been criticized for his sponsorship of the McCain-Feingold bill, which reformed campaign finance laws. Neither stance is popular with the Republican base.

And on Friday, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who has hinted he is contemplating jumping into the 2008 race, said that the burden of those two issues will weigh heavily on McCain's campaign — more heavily than support for abortion rights will weigh on Giulian's campaign.

"I do think that Senator McCain carries both the burden of McCain-Feingold and now the burden of the McCain-Kennedy bill," Gingrich said. "And I think if you were handicapping, he has the greatest challenge in a Republican primary of explaining those positions."

McCain did not entirely dismiss that idea, at least as it pertained to his support for immigration.

"He may be right [on the issue of immigration], for all I know," McCain said. "But I went [to Washington] to do the hard things. I went there to do something. The easiest thing for me to do is go there and say no to things."

While discussing immigration, McCain took the opportunity to criticize Giuliani and Romney for their position on that issue, saying they were inconsistent in opposing the Senate bill McCain helped to draft.

"I cannot impugn people's motives..." McCain said, "but it was not in keeping, in my view, with previously stated positions that I read and heard."

Stephanopoulos asked McCain about his friend Fred Thompson, a potential newcomer to the Republican primary. The former Tennessee senator served as one of the co-chairs of McCain's 2000 bid for the presidency, but has now made clear his intentions to run as an alternative to McCain, Romney and Giuliani.

"He's a close friend and supporter," McCain said. "I respect his desire to serve the country. And I think he's very well qualified in many ways."

But McCain maintained that a Thompson candidacy would not hurt his own chances to be nominated.

"Look, these things shift around back and forth. This is a long haul campaign. I'm very confident about the long run," McCain said.