Did John McCain shoot his own 2008 presidential campaign in the foot several years ago with the passage of the McCain-Feingold "campaign finance reform" law? Don Surber thinks so. Noting a Hotline report that the McCain campaign is falling short of its fund-raising goal, Surber takes issue with McCain's claim to reporters that he is falling short in fund-raising "because we got a late start."
Surber:
Once again, the media’s favorite Republican is being less than candid. Romney’s campaign began in January, a month after McCain began trying to raise presidential money. What is doing him in financially is karma. McCain-Feingold was supposed to limit money in political campaigns. That is why McCain is having trouble raising money. McCain-Feingold made him a political pariah.
Mitt Romney seems to be having no trouble raising money, according to Hotline.
Update: Or maybe not. This post at Hotline On Call raises the possibility that Romney's fundraising won't be all that great afterall...
When John McCain told reporters yesterday that his campaign's fundraising efforts had been hurt by a late start, was he artfully trying to lower expectations?
A Mitt Romney fundraiser with access to the campaign's daily fundraising tallies tells the Hotline that Romney won't raise more than $20 million -- much lower than the $30 to $35 million figure being floated about Washington by some of Romney's allies.
The fundraiser, who asked to remain anonymous in order to revisit McCain's claims, said that McCain's campaign was engaged in an elaborate game of deception in order to set Romney up. The thinking is that by artificially pumping up the amount of money Romney is expected to raise, the press will dutifully note that Romney "failed" to meet that non-realistic, externally-imposed goal. That'd be a bit of a psychic blow to the campaign.
A Romney campaign aide said last night that "McCain will be in first."
Er, did it occur to Hotline on Call blogger Mark Ambinder that maybe it's the Mitt Romney fundraiser who is lowering expectations for Romney while also setting up McCain by raising expectations for McCain to a level they don't think McCain will match.
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