Inside McCain Camp, a Mood of Gritty Determination

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 26, 2008

ALBUQUERQUE, Oct. 25 -- Only a few hundred people were on hand at the New Mexico state fairgrounds Saturday morning to hear Sen. John McCain's acknowledgment that "we're a few points down" in the polls and to cheer loudly when he bellowed, "We've got them right where we want them!"

The small crowd in a state now believed to be leaning strongly toward his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, added to the sense of fatalism that many Republicans now have about their chances of retaining the White House. But inside the McCain campaign the mood remains one of gritty resolve. Top aides know they are behind, but they hold out hope and, like their candidate, stubbornly refuse to give up.

"He's been in tougher spots than being behind in a few polls," senior adviser Steve Schmidt said in an interview Saturday morning. Schmidt has taken on the role of chief morale officer and according to campaign sources delivered an impassioned plea to staff members at McCain national headquarters in Arlington two weeks ago.

"Being part of an effort that fails does not make you a loser; it makes you a competitor," Schmidt, a former Bush White House official, told them. "What makes you a loser is curling up into the fetal position at a time of adversity. The only thing that would ever define anyone as a loser is to quit before it is over."

His words were meant to buck them up, but they betrayed the fear among McCain's senior advisers of where the presidential race is probably headed. A top aide to the campaign said later that "people know exactly where the race is. But people continue to fight to the end."

McCain's Arlington headquarters still buzzes with activity. The number of days until the election is written on dry-erase boards. Young opposition researchers intently monitor a bank of flat-screen televisions.

But the news on those TVs is almost entirely bleak for McCain, who has watched a small lead in the middle of September vanish into a double-digit deficit in most public polls. And the anonymous finger-pointing and rationalizing has already begun.

In the Washington echo chamber, unnamed GOP officials are publicly second-guessing Schmidt and the other top McCain campaign officials. They say McCain abandoned his successful brand, made erratic and confusing tactical decisions and has not been consistent in his descriptions of Obama.

Many of the accusations come from Capitol Hill, where the mood is even darker. House Republicans are resigned to losing a large number of seats; among GOP strategists, the only question at this point is whether that number is closer to 20 or 40.

The fight last month over economic rescue legislation split the party in two, with many conservatives opposed to the measure and angered by their leaders' support of the package, and Republican strategists now see their fates as inexorably linked to the bailout and the broader economy.

"Clearly the X factor is how the economic rescue package plays and how the stock market does," a Republican leadership aide said.

The same is true for McCain's White House prospects, said his advisers, who have watched as economic conditions have led less than 10 percent of Americans to say that the country is headed in the right direction.

But among McCain supporters, aides say they have not seen a drop-off in intensity. They said the desire to fight on is fueled in part by a frustration that McCain has not been treated fairly by the media.

"Most staff and volunteers do not worry about the armchair quarterbacks and second-guessers; they simply work hard fighting for the person they believe should be president," said political director Mike DuHaime, who works with the volunteers. "No poll or critic will ever make any staffer or volunteer believe Barack Obama would be a better president than John McCain."

On the trail, McCain himself seems more agitated than he did during the primaries. His smile seems more forced during television interviews, and the string of jokes he used to tell -- such as the one about the inmate who says, "The food was better in here when you were governor" -- are largely gone, replaced with a passionate, intense stump speech.

At the end of his speeches, he vows to be a fighter for causes he believes in, imploring his crowds not to "give up hope. Be strong. Have courage. And fight." The words are about issues, but as the campaign winds down, they feel more like a plea to continue campaigning for him.

It is reminiscent of the "No Surrender Tour" that McCain launched as his primary campaign floundered in the summer of 2007. The tour's title was about the Iraq war, but many saw it as a campaign motto, as well.

"Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history," McCain said in Albuquerque on Saturday. "Now, let's go win this election and get this country moving again!"

Senior aides who see McCain describe his mood as "steady" and "realistic." "He's fighting hard, and he believes he can win," one adviser said. "He knows he has to come from behind. But he believes he can win this race."

About 1,000 people gathered at a plaza in Mesilla, N.M., on Saturday afternoon to hear McCain once again predict that Obama will join with revitalized Democrats in Congress to raid their pocketbooks and "spread the wealth around."

"We're a few points down. The pundits have written us off, just like they have before," he said, drawing cheers by adding: "Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned. I prefer to let voters decide these things."

McCain's crowds appear to be getting smaller just as Obama has returned to the massive rallies he held earlier in the campaign. Obama drew tens of thousands of people to his own rally in Albuquerque on Saturday night.

Frustrated McCain campaign aides disputed the crowd counts of some of their candidate's recent events, insisting that they were larger than reported. On the McCain plane Saturday, senior adviser Mark Salter said 1,400 people were recorded as going through security in Albuquerque. He said a rally in Durango, Colo., on Friday attracted 8,000.

But his top aides have not entirely lost their sense of humor.

One night last week, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of McCain's closest friends, joked with a group of reporters, predicting with great gusto that McCain would win Graham's home state -- hardly a huge achievement given South Carolina's GOP leanings.

And Friday night, Graham and Salter laughed as they watched the "Saturday Night Live" spoof of a full-throated endorsement of McCain from President Bush.

But there is no talk among aides about transition plans or possible jobs in the White House. Instead, conversations almost always turn to complaints about Obama's negative campaigning and the unfair treatment they believe McCain has received at the hands of the media.

"At the end of the day, it's important to set the record straight about Barack Obama's negative campaign, and the immense hypocrisy of his claims about our campaign when he's the real culprit in this race," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in a memo sent to reporters.

Staff writer Paul Kane in Washington contributed to this report.