McKinnon Joins Team McCain

Austin consultant meets with McCain

Mark McKinnon, the Austin political consultant who oversaw the advertising for President Bush in the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, has committed to help Sen. John McCain in a second presidential bid.

Mr. McKinnon ? one of the president's closest friends and confidants and a frequent mountain biking companion ? met with the Arizona Republican over lunch this spring in the Senate dining room to discuss his support, said a GOP activist familiar with the meeting.

At this point, Mr. McCain, who lost to Mr. Bush in a bitter 2000 Republican primary, is in the early but unmistakable stages of laying the groundwork for another campaign. And Mr. McKinnon has indicated he'd review his options, should Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, run in 2008.

Not quite the same as a staffer leaking word of an impending announcement in order to spook your primary opponent, but it ain't nothing. I'm fairly sceptical of McCain's odds in the GOP primary, but stranger things have happened. It'd be worth it just to see all the righist bloggers squirm in their re-analysis of what a "moderate" John McCain really is.

For my own sake, I'll put the cards right upfront on the table ... if it's McCain vs Clinton, I've got no complaints. That's a campaign I'll enjoy covering day in, day out. McCain is just about the only GOP candidate that I can see warranting any consideration for crossing over, but that's also predicated on a massive meltdown on the D side that I'm not about to start rooting for. Clinton, Biden, Warner, Bredesen, and Bayh all rank as aces in my book. Beyond that, show me the details.