Primary’s ‘Straight Talk’ Candidate Is Still Talking

For a guy who lost 21 of 28 presidential contests, John McCain hardly seems vanquished.

Ubiquitous is more like it.

Here he is in Hanoi, reminiscing in the pages of People magazine about his POW days. There he is on Long Island, alongside Senate hopeful Rudy Giuliani, holding one of his patented town hall meetings. And there, again, in South Carolina, delivering a major mea culpa for ducking the Confederate flag controversy.

On Thursday, McCain hijacked the campaign headlines by threatening to pull out of a scheduled peacemaking session with Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who is now the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency.

If it seems like McCain has scarcely stopped running since ceasing his presidential bid, it’s because he really hasn’t. In the seven weeks since he suspended--but never formally ended--his candidacy, the Republican senator from Arizona has collected nearly $1 million, traveled to nine states, done repeated star turns on the Beltway chat-show circuit and generally served to demonstrate that there is a difference between losing and being defeated.

But to what end?

Partly it’s duty. The good soldier vows to do his part to help Bush win the White House, though McCain and top aides seem conspicuously lukewarm in their support of the Texas governor. Of greater interest, there is the GOP majority in Congress that needs protecting--”our primary political goal of the year, quite frankly,” said John Weaver, a top McCain advisor.

And, of course, there looms the 2004 presidential race, should Bush happen to fall in November.

“This chapter ended,” Weaver said of McCain’s White House ambitions. “We don’t know where in the book we are. We could be in the middle. We don’t believe we’re near the end.”

Presidential politics is a harsh and unforgiving sport. From Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) to former California Gov. Pete Wilson, dozens of White House aspirants have seen their bright reputations dulled by disastrous campaigns.

What distinguishes McCain from losers past is the fact that he did win a few primaries--seven to be exact--and collected 5 million votes before succumbing to the weight of Bush’s combined financial and institutional advantages.

Under Republican Party rules, McCain’s control of more than half a dozen state delegations will give him an important say on procedural matters at this summer’s GOP nominating convention.

But even more important are the kind of voters McCain attracted to his candidacy. The independent-minded political free agents drawn to his anti-establishment message--including many Democrats who crossed party lines--are precisely the sort of swing voters who will likely decide the presidential race in November, along with key congressional races across the country.

No one suggests these voters are standing by, drone-like, waiting for a sign from McCain. Indeed, some question how much anybody, save a handful of admirers in the media, knows or cares about McCain’s post-campaign perambulations.

Said Charles Cook, who publishes a nonpartisan political review: “I don’t think he’s generating any interest at all, except among reporters who fell in love with him” and his ingenuous style of campaigning without curtains.

Still, candidates across the country--dozens, in fact--are clamoring for a chance to appear alongside the snowy-haired senator, who made unfiltered access an art form and turned a diesel-belching bus into a cultural icon.

(Recently, a receptionist fielded a call from a man who wanted to surprise his wife by chartering McCain’s famous coach, the Straight Talk Express, for a birthday ride around town. Alas, the bus has since rejoined the fleet at Ohio’s Custom Coaches.)

Since shuttering his presidential campaign March 9, McCain has established a fund-raising committee, Straight Talk America, to support a staff of nine and finance his political travels across the country. Appearing on college campuses, at book signings and American Legion halls, McCain continues to press for campaign finance reform and a more open, inclusive Republican Party, the hallmarks of his Beltway-bashing candidacy.

His relations with Bush remain cool, if correct. He has flatly ruled out any interest in serving as vice president and repeatedly urges the governor not to even ask.

“I’ve made it very clear that I have no interest,” McCain said again this week on MSNBC, live from Vietnam. “I do not want to be placed on the list . . . I believe that there are many other people who would serve far more effectively and be of much more help to Gov. Bush than I.”

Earlier this month, Bush and McCain announced plans to hold their first post-primary session on May 9 in Pittsburgh, a site chosen for its mutual convenience. On Thursday, however, McCain threatened to pull out in a dispute over the substance of the talks. Representatives from the two camps planned to meet today in Washington in an effort to resolve their differences.

Ari Fleischer, a Bush spokesman, said Bush welcomes McCain’s support and professed to be heartened by his extensive campaigning. “The more Sen. McCain campaigns across the United States on behalf of Republicans, the better it is for our party and our ideas.”