At least according to a Newsweek poll:

A new poll from Newsweek has some interesting data on Hillary Clinton’s electability. According to the poll, Hillary beats John McCain 50 to 43 percent, squeaks by Rudy Giuliani 48 to 47 percent and trounces Mitt Romney, 58 to 32 percent. Her presumptive rival, Barack Obama, narrowly loses to McCain and Giuliani but thumps Romney as well, 55 to 25 percent.

That said, Hillary’s lead over McCain is interesting because of what it says about him. In previous polls the Senator from Arizona has handily defeated his Democratic opponents. But in recent months his numbers have begun to fall. Among independent voters, he’s slipped 15 points since March.

Could the McCain-Bush Iraq plan be dragging him down?

I know that polls this far out don’t mean much. However, as the article notes, the most important thing about this poll is when candidates lose support. For someone as well know as John McCain, losing 15 points in less than a year in public opinion means they aren’t agreeing with you on something.

This could also be the American people waking up to McCain’s rightward turn to lick the heels of the radical Christian right. The old Maverick McCain would have never given the commencement speech at liberty University, and Americans hate phony pandering. A man willing to sell his soul to get elected is a truly unseemly sight.

Further fallout from the story mentioned here the other day about John McCain and Internet regulation…

RedState is angry at a new bill the Senator John McCain is pushing. While the left and the right blogospheres disagree on almost anything, one thing that binds them together is a hatred of ill-informed internet regulation. McCain’s bill simply does not make sense from a small-blog owner’s perspective. RedState reports:

Through a vaguely written last-minute piece of legislation, scrawled on a napkin by a staffer who could’ve used an extra Red Bull, McCain would solve the problem of online child pornography by regulating the heck out of the internet in the form of massive fines for sites that allow any obscenity to slip through. The target area includes everything from message boards to MySpace to (if the smart lawyers who don’t work for McCain are right) Redstate and other membership-based blogs.

The more you dig out of this piece of legislation, the more frightening it becomes. Bloggers could be forced to pay fines for not regulating the amount of spam on their blog – any links that make it through the obscenity filters could spark regulation and punishment – and in addition, according to the smart folks at the Center for Democracy & Technology, any membership-based site that allowed a sexual predator to register could be subject to penalties:

There is absolutely nothing wrong with protecting children from predators. This bill, however, does nothing substantive to reduce that risk and poses a threat to small blogs and websites.

The real question here is whether McCain knows anything at all about the ramifications of the bill. In other words: Is McCain just senile, or is he blatantly malicious towards the internet?

McCain News from around the web:

• Time magazine wonders if being the frontrunner this early in the race can hurt McCain and his outsider “maverick” image.
• C-Net, normally a non-political technology oriented website, castigates Senator McCain for his proposal regarding additional regulation on small website operators.
• Jim Geraghty of the National Review Online speculates in the New York Sun that if McCain were to win the nomination, he could pick Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty as his running mate.

Via MyDD. From Washington Post’s “The Fix”:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) continues to recruit top GOP political operatives in expectation of a presidential run. According to a source close to the McCain operation, the candidate has lined up Terry Nelson to serve as campaign manager…

Does the name Terry Nelson sound familiar? Besides producing the racist anti Harold Ford “bimbo” ad, he was the key point of contact between Tom Delay and the RNC during the time of the TRMPAC scandal. In fact, MyDD reports that he was an indicted co-conspirator.

It is almost cliche at this point, but it appears the straight talk express has left the building.

While being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos, Senator John McCain can’t say more than a few words without glancing at his notes. There’s nothing wrong with having an outline of talking points and I certainly would not begrudge an old man a cue card or two, but this is getting ridiculous.

As Senator McCain has aged, how much has his memory degraded? I don’t want to be mean, but we are talking about a man who wants to be President of the United States of America. We can’t afford to have a President who is losing his short term memory.

According to some campaign operatives in Ohio, 70 year old Senator John McCain just couldn’t keep up the demanding schedule set for him during the 2006 campaign season:

“He was tired, he was short, he went his own way.” “Nothing close” to the energy level necessary for a presidential campaign: “He was out of gas well before he should have been.”

The Presidency is an unimaginably stressful and demanding job, one that requires long periods of concentration and unending energy. If Senator McCain were to win the Presidency, he would be 72 when sworn in.

It seems that McCain isn’t physically up to the job.

Even though Senator John McCain has cozied up to prominent religious conservative leaders many pundits have placed his chances as less than good in a nasty GOP primary. Some conservatives are still riled over the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law that they view as a restriction on the freedom of speech. Additionally, the very mention of the McCain-Kennedy Immigration plan that was proposed in the Senate is enough to make many conservative activists red in the face.

Personally, I think McCain’s largest asset in a GOP primary battle could be Hillary Clinton. If she runs, and if she looks to be the prohibitive favorite in the Democratic primary, the republicans will be desperate to find a candidate they think could beat the Clinton juggernaut. If McCain presents himself as the only GOP candidate that could beat Clinton, then the conservatives may just choose electability over ideology. Obviously, this scenario depends on Clinton running and being the front-runner.

What do you think? Are there other scenarios that would make the conservative base hold their noses and vote for McCain in the primary?

After an extended hiatus for the 2006 campaign season, Stop John McCain 2008 is back. As always, please send any tips or suggestions to stopjohnmccain2008@gmail.com.

Poor, Poor Senator McCain. Seems he had his delicate feelings hurt by the meanies at the New School Graduation:

The Arizona senator said he has spoken at schools throughout the country but never before found himself in a situation in which it became difficult for him to get his message across.

“I’ve got to say that maybe the students at the New School could learn a lesson in courtesy from the students at Liberty University,” he said.

“I was saddened that these young people live in such a dull world that they don’t want to hear the views of someone who disagrees with them.”

No, Senator McCain, you are the one reacting negatively to opposing ideas. You don’t want to hear that the American people refuse to buy your lies any longer. You moderate image will continued to be assailed. If I were you, I would get used to it.

Seems his associates in Texas have been up to no good:

Sen. John McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC returned $20K in contributions from Sam and Charles Wyly after the STA finance team learned that the Wylys were under federal investigation for alleged tax evasion.

McCain attended a May 15 fundraiser in Austin, TX co-hosted by the Wyly brothers.

“After the checks were received from Sam and Charles Wyly, it was discovered through the normal vetting process here at Straight Talk America that a federal inquiry is ongoing into the two gentlemen,” said STA exec. dir. Craig Goldman in a statement. “Once that was discovered, we have a policy internally not to accept contributions from people in that situation, so the checks were returned.”

Good on McCain for returning the tainted money, but shouldn’t he have known beforehand that these folks were under federal investigation?

Much about a person’s character can be deduced by the company they keep.