AFL-CIO takes aim at John McCain
The AFL-CIO is planning to spend $53 million on the 2008 presidential campaign, and it won't be for John McCain. In fact, the labor group launched a website today devoted to the "truth" about McCain, including a briefing book on its characterization of his stances on labor and working-class issues.
A kitty that big should be a formidable presence in a national political campaign. But unions' sway with
their members isn't what it once was. And while union backing, almost always for Democratic candidates, gives access to phone banks, precinct walkers and other nuts-and-bolts aspects of campaigning, the AFL-CIO's help in the last couple of presidential cycles hasn't delivered a win.
Four years ago, the AFL-CIO ponied up $44 million to back John Kerry over George Bush, and in 2000 spent $41 million trying to get Al Gore elected. Already in this cycle, Barack Obama had the backing of the Culinary Arts Workers union, Nevada's largest, and still lost there to Hillary Clinton. And the Teamsters endorsement didn't help him much in Ohio, either.
Union folks can make the argument that labor spending on political campaigns is dwarfed by spending from business interests. But still, when you're spending the equivalent of a CEO's annual earnings on a presidential campaign, you really ought to be claiming more success.
So file this under the "couldn't hurt" column, but don't look for it to be make-or-break. And the big issue looming on the horizon is, if Obama wins the nomination, what does he do about the inevitable ad spending on his behalf by the kinds of "special interests" against which he rails so often?
-- Scott Martelle
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Looks like McCain is in a bind, literally.
Landon Bales
Editor
United States Herald
unitedstatesherald.com
Posted by: Landon Bales | March 12, 2008 at 02:24 PM
What does McCain really stand for? Harassing people. It's the American way...
http://www.236.com/news/2008/03/11/from_the_feed_tori_spelling_wa_5080.php
Posted by: Alyssa | March 12, 2008 at 02:42 PM
At a time the economy heads toward recession and many members of the AFL-CIO will be looking for some much needed help for thing like food and gas, it's outrageous to spend $55 million on one campaign. In fact the AFL-CIO has spent over $600 million on loosing campaigns in the last 8 years. When will the rank and file get help rather then all the lying politicians from both parties. The leadership is as crooked as the politicians.
Posted by: Starry Perdun | March 12, 2008 at 03:24 PM
I don't know Scott. What do Hillary and McCain do about the free gratis bias by the special interest MSM groups?
Posted by: Web Smith | March 12, 2008 at 03:36 PM
The equivalent of a CEO's annual earnigs.......
Do I detect some poor misguided leftist rable rousing here
Scott ?
Posted by: Always Right | March 12, 2008 at 06:56 PM