On the heels of Romney's loss tongiht, my bet would be that the Dems will face McCain-Huckabee, afterall (in the unlikely event that McCain can stomach it).
They both have loose mouths*. They are both incredibly vulnerable.
notice, in the context of that article, that Halperin's post-mortem on Rudy "Julie-Annie" - that pronunciation was starting to drive me up the wall - includes this should-have-done:
5. Cultivated members of the national press and tried to get to know (and be known by) them.
... hummmm ... "oo, oo, oo, what a friendly press corps can do for you"
The truth is, I don't think that Rudy ever really thought of himself as President and was surprised to find himself in front-runner status for so long. Now, he gets to hand off to McCain, who got to dodge the scrutiny, after letting his campaign implode in a ball of staff firings (yes, it could happen when he's executive, too, mark my words).
[*On that score, I just heard McCain promise a crowd today that the lives sacrificed in Iraq would be in vain. Of course, he meant, NOT in vain. "My friends", there is going to be a lot of that.]
CLEAN HANDS McCAIN
From the WaPo, via Romney campaign, what McCain is doing for Patriotism, most recently:
[A] recent study by the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute and the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen found that McCain has more lobbyists raising funds for his presidential bid than do any of his rivals. He has 32 "bundlers" of donations who are lobbyists. Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R) is the closest to him with 29 lobbyist bundlers, followed by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with 18.
McCain's campaign has also been guided by lobbyists. Davis, the campaign manager, is a former lobbyist who represented major telecommunications companies. The campaign's senior adviser is Charles R. Black Jr., chairman of BKSH & Associates, which represents drug companies, an oil company, an automaker, a telecommunications company, defense contractors and the steel industry, among others.
McCain's campaign has also been guided by lobbyists. Davis, the campaign manager, is a former lobbyist who represented major telecommunications companies. The campaign's senior adviser is Charles R. Black Jr., chairman of BKSH & Associates, which represents drug companies, an oil company, an automaker, a telecommunications company, defense contractors and the steel industry, among others.
Story also at Kos, in more detail.
