Stick a Fork in John McCain?

Found this article on TPM Cafe. Say it's so!

Poll: Napolitano Would Beat McCain For Senate In 2010
A newly released Behavior Research Center poll finds that Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) would defeat John McCain for his Senate seat in 2010, with Napolitano ahead 47%-36%. The poll was conducted from July 27 to August 4.

Apologies if this has been posted already.

•  It was posted last evening,

  but I am sure most people didn't see it.  It's great news.  Bush belly hugs don't play well even in Arizona.

  by DCDemocrat on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:05:25 AM PDT

  •  The important question:

    When is McCain up for reelection and is Napolitano willing to run?

    by pamelabrown on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:08:59 AM PDT

    •  see my post below

      The election isn't until 2010, which is a political lifetime away, but it's still good news for us. Arizona hasn't had a truly competitive Senate race since 1980.

      As for whether Napolitano is willing to run, I've heard various theories about that, which I describe in my post down-thread. But even if she doesn't run, there are a number of other potential Democratic challengers on-tap who could make for a potentially top-tier race.

      by pine on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:12:47 AM PDT

      •  I would lay a bet that this presidential

        race if McCain's last hurrah.  He's retirement age, and it's a good idea.

        by DCDemocrat on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:14:32 AM PDT

        •  Don't hold your breath

          ... this from a constituent of Arlen Specter  ::argh::

          by charlestown dem on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:16:43 AM PDT

        •  He's an anachronism before his time

          I agree with you; there's not much point to McCain hanging on after a failed run.  He managed to extricate himself from the Savings and Loan Scandal back in the 80's.  Then, for a while, he was truly an independent voice - working with Feingold and Kennedy on legislation.  I think in 2000, despite his right wing leanings, he was at least somewhat of an independent thinker.  I disagreed with him profoundly, but respected him.

          But the Bush Administration has been as disasterous to his reputation as the S&L scandal twenty years ago, and he doesn't have another decade to recover his honor.  There's something both chilling and sad about Bush's public humiliations of John McCain - using his adopted daughter's race in South Carolina, sliming him in ways that were even more objectionable than the Swiftboating of Kerry - and then demanding the public loyalty.  McCain was courting Bush in order to be selected the hand-picked successor as recently as 2005, before it became clear that Bush's second term would be a fiasco.  Now it's too late.  He no longer even has his reputation for "straight talk", and it's not just the Iraq war which is responsible for his situation.

          by ivorybill on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:51:01 AM PDT

          •  I think your analysis is spot on.

            by DCDemocrat on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:58:11 AM PDT

          •  McCain's just laying the groundwork

            for the 2012 Presidential race. He feels destiny's call to be the next Bob Dole running against a popular incumbent Democratic President.

            I predict he will win Alaska, Idaho and Georgia. But not Arizona.

            by aggressiveprogressive on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 08:06:45 AM PDT

          •  I agree with you that McCain traded

            honor and integrity for the illusion that he could be crowned the heir apparent. I really wonder how, if as is likely he needs to drop out of the Presidential race, he will deal with the fact that he really did sel his soul. (So, far it looks like he simply makes things up - such as having voted for Bush because "Bush's opponent" was for immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Interesting that he can not say Senator Kerry's name.)

            I do disagree that the McCain smears were worse. I think Kerry handled the smears against him better - it was not that they were less. (They ranged from war criminal to traitor to coward - none with any backing in reality.)

            by karenc on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 08:11:21 AM PDT

          •  You nailed it

            McCain has become the Michael Vick of politics.  He took a great reputation and threw it down the drain.  I was once of his strong supporters, but now look back and wonder where he lost his integrity.  

            by mystic on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 09:06:57 AM PDT

  •  Thnaks

    This is the first I am seeing it.
    And it is good news.

    by tucsonlynn on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:20:33 AM PDT

•  Jeezus...

  ...considering that just a few months ago, I was telling people that McCain was a lock for the GOP nomination, I am stunned at how far he has fallen so quickly.

  Although I'll just keep telling myself that I couldn't have foreseen such catastrophic self-inflicted injuries.

  by Devin on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:08:09 AM PDT

  •  He was always viewed with some suspicion

    He's always had a hard time balancing his impulse to live up to his reputation, with his craven hunger for getting elected.  Back when he did the right thing - worked in a bipartisan fashion on campaign finance for example - his base saw it as caving in to Democrats.  So he already had a kind of reverse Lieberman stench with the GOP hardcore base.  

    At the same time, he never adequately responded to the vicious, horrible Rovian attacks on himself and his family.  So his supporters, moderate Republicans and non-fundie Libertarian Republicans, felt about McCain the same that we felt about Kerry.  He failed to stand up for himself and appeared weak.  

    Then came immigration.  He was on the right side on that debate - including in his own state, which is on balance not nearly as neanderthal on immigration as the nearly all-white Iowa Republican Party.  But McCain was back to taking a principled stand on an issue... he was playing to the center, toning down the rhetoric of fear upon which the modern Republican Party is built.  But that was his Lieberman moment with the Republican faithful.  They abandoned him and his moderate libertarian core supporters no longer respected him.  He's just a parody now.  

    I still can't find it in me to think really cruel thoughts about John McCain.  He's dead wrong on many issues, but he's not a sociopath like most of the other Republicans in the race.  He had a sense of honor, which maybe is still there but dormant.  He can't really be characterized as a partisan hack.  He is aware on some level of the cancer in the GOP that spread during the Bush/Rove years.  Mostly, I'm glad he has no political future... but part of me actually feels a little sadness for John McCain.

    by ivorybill on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 08:03:30 AM PDT

•  yeah, it's a shocker

  This poll shows how far GOP fortunes have fallen nationwide. McCain's approval rating in the early 2000s hovered in the 60s, even while other Republicans (like hapless ex-governor Jane Hull) floundered on the public stage. The fact that McCain's teflon has chipped this much calls into question the dominance of the GOP in Arizona and nationwide.

  These most recent poll results are sure to fuel speculation about Napolitano's post-gubernatorial plans. Previous insiders have hypothesized that she might run for the seat only if McCain retires. And I've heard form friends active in Arizona Democratic circles that Janet's most interested in being either State Attorney General again or AG of the United States in a Dmeocratic administration. But these numbers might give her reason to look at the Senate seat again, even if McCain decides to seek a fifth term.

  by pine on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:08:55 AM PDT

•  not to mention

  That after he gets his sorry ass handed to him on a platter with the Repub promaries, the stink of LOSER will be all over him, and he will become even more crochety and ill tempered.
  My bet is he won't even run for re-election in 2010.
  His political ambitions will have been completely crushed, and he will be just another mean old man looking at spending the rest of his career as a member of the minority.
  It'll be so much easier for him to take a cushy job as a defense industry lobbyist.

  by fat old man on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:10:59 AM PDT

  •  worse, he'll get a job as a 'pundit'

    by shpilk on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:55:24 AM PDT

•  Love your diary title. n/t

  by Norwegian Chef on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:13:05 AM PDT

•  I know republicans don't work this way

  But I remember Kerry being at 6% about this time in the 03-04 primary season.

  Bush could start WW3 and trigger the hind brain thinkers.

  It ain't pretty but it's a strange world that advertising hypnotism has wrought.

  by NCrefugee on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:25:30 AM PDT

•  I expect

  that 2010 will mark the end of John McCain's political career.  I think he'll probably retire rather than fight a tough re-election campaign.

  by GTPinNJ on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:46:39 AM PDT

•  If John was a pet, I'd be making that

  appointment at the vet...

  by dallasdave on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 07:47:06 AM PDT

•  yeah. he's done.

  the story about Napolitano is old news, but there is a story in the fact that McCain does not seem to realize his presidential campaign is over.

  by TrueBlueMajority on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 08:06:26 AM PDT

•  Who was it recently (Cafferty?)

  that said "as if sitting in a box as a P.O.W." for five years made one a war hero? I give him props for enlisting and serving, but I admit I kinda don't quite get that myself. I'm being charitable here... don't hit me!

  by charlestown dem on Wed Aug 22, 2007 at 08:19:09 AM PDT