Jonathan Martin has a good piece at Politico that shows the GOP base of Middle America is warming to our maverick nominee. Even better is the respect he appears to get from those who aren’t particularly politically-inclined.

“There is a tremendous amount of respect for John McCain out there,” says the fundraiser.  “He’s seen as a gritty, kind of stand-up guy.   They’re not familiar with the dark side of John McCain that folks inside the Beltway are.”

I’d even broaden it beyond region.   McCain has considerable appeal to those Republicans and conservative-leaning Americans who are not hyper-engaged and consumed by an issue matrix.   The more casual the voter, the more likely he or she is to like McCain.    Why?  Because, as my source puts more colorfully, the information flow they have is largely confined to Vietnam vet, POW, straight talker and maybe maverick. [...]

Then again, we might not even need an inspiring maverick to get people with basic economic educations to the polls this time around.

Oh, there is another reason why business community types in flyover country are now warming to McCain, says my source.

“The economic policies of Obama and Clinton scare the [stuffing] out of people.”

You can say that again. 25-30% capital gains tax? Universal healthcare? I can feel the collective pants of America needing a change.

And Hot Air has the scoop on McCain’s fundraising. It ain’t shabby, but it isn’t Messiah-cash, either. Baby steps, John, baby steps.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 9:19 am and is filed under 2008 Race, Economy, Hillary, McCain, Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.