McCain News

• McCain announced on Friday that Mitt Romney's former senior political director Rob Gray, will be serving has his New England regional political strategist. Gray said "I like Mitt, but I think John McCain is the right candidate to carry our party to victory in 2008." Does a defection like this hurt Romney? If so, how much?
  

• The Arizona Republic quoted political oracle Larry Sabato saying of last week's Arizona straw poll "[it] does suggest that there is enduring enmity toward McCain in many conservative circles. They just don't like him, and they never will. McCain could walk on water, and their headline would be, 'McCain can't swim.'" Other notables, however, contended that the straw poll was dubious. Arizona's GOP chair Matt Salmon claimed it was "the last salvo in an ongoing attack by a disgruntled few. . . They try to make it seem like the opposition is a lot bigger and broader than it really is."