What Do You Do When You Have No Money?

Remember how the presence of Mike Huckabee in the GOP race was really hurting McCain? Remember Huckabee saying that he was keeping McCain in the news by providing a race. Looks like he was right:

McCain’s first stop will be New Hampshire for a town hall meeting – his first post-vote visit back to the state that propelled his comeback.

Then, say his advisers, he will head overseas. Later this month he will go to Europe and meet with allies and leaders of key countries, followed by a journey to the Middle East – an itinerary designed to showcase his credentials as the candidate with the most foreign policy experience.

So, the way to run for President is to leave the country to meet foreign leaders? I’m dubious, at best. This was part of the Rudy Giuliani playbook and Rudy ended up getting less votes than Ron Paul.

McCain is in a difficult spot. Its comparable to that of the Colorado Rockies in last year’s World Series. The Rockies were hurt by an  8 day layoff between the end of the NLCS and the start of the World Series. Of course, Clint Hurdle asked a poignant question. What were they supposed to do? However, I think what McCain is doing is incredibly ineffective.

It goes on:

When he returns, McCain’s team plans another tour – one designed to highlight his biography and service. His advisers say Americans know McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, but don’t know many of the details that go along with that. “Many people know McCain as he maverick senator, but we don’t presume that they know the entirety if his remarkable life story and how that prepared him to be president,” said one senior adviser.

One of the themes they hope to stress is the image of McCain as an inspirational figure based on his background and experience, not “platitudes” — as the likely Republican nominee has often characterized potential general election opponent Barack Obama.

The senator will travel to locations that help illustrate parts of his life and the story his campaign wants to tell, like Annapolis. They will also try to focus attention on his family’s military lineage – both his father and grandfather were admirals in the Navy.

I’m beginning to have a flashback to another John, John Kerry. Hightlighting Vietnam and military experience worked well for him. Unfortunately, the problem the McCain camp is going to run into is this: People are very concerned about their own situation and the national economy. General Election Voters are really not horribly concerned with foreign policy right now. 4 years after 9/11, only 34% of voters cast ballots based on the economy. and many of those were in favor of pulling us out of Iraq. McCain has to get voters to forget about the housing market recession and the uptick in unemployment and focus on military experience. That’s a tough order.

Jim Geraghty can rightly dismiss an absurd poll that ask all adults including non-registered voters what they think. More problematic for McCain is that he trails Barack Obama in RCP poll of polls by 5.5%  Survey USA shows Obama up 280-258 over McCain with several Red States going blue and several getting much closer. For example, McCain only leads in Idaho by 13 points, and in Utah by 11. Obama is even winning North Dakota. Against Hillary, McCain still trails 276-262. In other words, it doesn’t look good and trips to the middle east and hightlighting military service ain’t going to fix it.