July 12, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

McCain battling to stay the course
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, July 12, Graphic News:  John McCain, the Arizona senator and former Vietnam POW, is hanging on to his bid for the Republican nomination by the skin of his teeth. After the resignations of key campaign staff and with his poll ratings diminishing as rapidly as his funds, the question for many is whether the fatal blow has already been dealt -- or whether he can limp on.

McCainÕs campaign to represent his party in the 2008 U.S. presidential elections had not been going smoothly for some time, but few could have predicted its virtual implosion as both his campaign manager Terry Nelson and strategist and friend John Weaver quit after new figures showed a serious shortage of funding and disastrous spending decisions.

With just $2 million left of the former military manÕs $24 million war chest raised in the first half of 2007, even MCainÕs strong supporters are now struggling to see how he can mount a viable challenge to rivals including former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Most troubling are claims that much of the money was squandered on luxuries such as private jets and limousines.

Once the presumptive frontrunner, the Arizona senator has slipped further down the polls in recent months -- many Americans seem unwilling to install a septuagenarian in the White House and party colleagues have been alienated by his unwavering support for Ôlame duckÕ President Bush and his war in Iraq. An early supporter of the war, McCain has repeatedly called for more troops to bolster U.S. forces.

In the current climate, such a stance might seem a liability though most accept that at least McCainÕs background qualifies him to comment.

The son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals, McCain was born on August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal zone. He trained as a naval aviator and was posted to Vietnam in 1967, two years after marrying his first wife Carol Shepp. In July 1967 he narrowly escaped death when a rocket was accidentally fired at his Skyhawk. The incident killed 132 sailors and injured hundreds.

Later that year he was captured by Vietnamese forces and held at the notorious ÒHanoi HiltonÓ camp. He was tortured into signing an anti-U.S. propaganda statement but refused an offer of early repatriation. The experience has informed his politics: McCain played a key role in the anti-torture bill, and he favours shutting down the jail at Guantanamo Bay.

On his return from war, McCain discovered that his wife had been involved in a serious car accident, and was four inches shorter and disabled as a result. He had several affairs before meeting beer heiress Cindy Hensley whom he eventually married in 1980. Her familyÕs fortune helped him to launch his second career. He won a seat in Congress in 1982, and became senator of Arizona in 1992.

At the time of his 2000 bid for the Republican nomination, McCain appealed as a breath of fresh air and a man of integrity in the murky world of politics. In 2004 his backing for George W. Bush convinced some who had thought the president too conservative (McCain is seen as a maverick with ÒliberalÓ views on issues such as gay rights and a new immigration bill). This time he has appeared gaffe-prone and allied to the wrong side.

That McCain had prepared carefully for his final tilt at the ultimate prize -- securing sponsors beforehand and positioning himself as less as of a party outsider -- perhaps makes the apparent unravelling of his campaign more surprising. He now plans to focus only on the key primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

While no one is writing him off just yet, many question whether he has the energy to stay in the fight.
/ENDS