The Daily Background

In mid-July, I wrote about how the lack of funds in John McCain’s campaign coffers was causing him to cut back on travel options:

ABC News aired an uncharacteristically blunt report on John McCain’s campaign last night. The Senator, they reported, could no longer afford to travel in his trademark “Straight Talk Express” bus, and that he instead opted to fly coach on US Air, which is described by Wikipedia as “the sixth largest airline in the United States, and the largest low cost/low fare carrier in the United States.”

Partial transcript:

“… Just to illustrate some of the problems here: John McCain? No bus. No straight-talk express today or tomorrow in New Hampshire– they simply can’t afford it. He travelled up here on coach, he flew coach on US Air, no campaign plane for John McCain, and he’s travelling around the state with relatively few aides.”

Well those “relatively few aides” is now down to one, at least on one recent flight. And yes, according to a new report, he’ still flying on budget airline US Air:

US Airways Flight 3027 from Washington to South Carolina was cramped on Monday, carrying a full load of passengers that included summer travelers and Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

This is what McCain’s legendary “Straight Talk Express” has become — no huge bus and accompanying entourage — just simply the Arizona senator, an aide carrying a briefcase, on a crowded commercial flight and a fairly anonymous arrival at Columbia’s airport for two days of campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination.
[…]
McCain’s campaign for the November 2008 election hit hard times when donations dried to a trickle after his stance in favor of a U.S. immigration overhaul angered conservatives, and an operation built for $100 million had to be stripped to the bone.

My, how the mighty have fallen.

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog