Against the Wind

JOHN MCCAIN sewed up the Republican nomination last February, but his cash-strapped campaign didn’t conduct its first serious poll until April. At that time, McCain still enjoyed the luxury of planning for the general election while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were busy slugging it out. But when pollster Bill McInturff briefed McCain’s inner circle, he had some sobering news to deliver. “He said, ‘This is going to be the worst environment since 1992 for a Republican, and it could get even worse,'” top McCain aide Charlie Black told me recently. Black paused a moment before adding, “And now, it’s gotten worse.”

Not just worse-historically so. No Republican since the members of Congress who ran in the Watergate mid-term elections of 1974 has faced as many obstacles as John McCain does now. Among them:

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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JOHN MCCAIN sewed up the Republican nomination last February, but his cash-strapped campaign didn’t conduct its first serious poll until April. At that time, McCain still enjoyed the luxury of planning for the general election while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were busy slugging it out. But when pollster Bill McInturff briefed McCain’s inner circle, he had some sobering news to deliver. “He said, ‘This is going to be the worst environment since 1992 for a Republican, and it could get even worse,'” top McCain aide Charlie Black told me recently. Black paused a moment before adding, “And now, it’s gotten worse.”

Not just worse-historically so. No Republican since the members of Congress who ran in the Watergate mid-term elections of 1974 has faced as many obstacles as John McCain does now. Among them: