WASHINGTON — Striding through the wreckage of the midterm election, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will take a major step today toward a 2008 presidential bid by announcing he has established a committee to formally explore a campaign and making two major speeches laying out his vision for the future of the GOP.
McCain has been considered the front-runner for the Republican nomination in a field that changed rapidly after the tumultuous midterms.
In response to the party's big losses, McCain has been moving to make a fresh appeal to the surly voters who helped end GOP control of the House and the Senate -- Republicans and independents angry about government corruption and excessive spending.
That anger contributed to Democratic gains in 2006, but it may open a political opportunity for McCain in 2008 by highlighting concerns about lax ethics and pork-barrel spending -- his signature issues.
"For years he's been on a one-man crusade against wasteful spending in Washington," says a biography of McCain on www.exploremccain.com, the website launched Wednesday by his exploratory committee. "Because of his crackdown on waste in government, he's been nicknamed 'The Sheriff.' "
But the midterms underscore a growing risk for McCain on another front: Polls show that a majority of voters disapprove of the war in Iraq and want at least some troops withdrawn, and McCain is almost alone in calling for a larger deployment. He reinforced that position Wednesday when, at a Senate hearing, he upbraided military leaders for not calling for more troops.
"I'm of course disappointed that basically you're advocating the status quo here today, which I think the American people in the last election said ... is not an acceptable condition," he said.
Other potential White House contenders are jockeying for position as well. On Wednesday, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, secretary of Health and Human Services in President Bush's first term, said he intended to form a presidential exploratory committee.
Earlier this week, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani also took a step in that direction. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is courting evangelical Republicans. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) has announced a longshot White House bid.
But allies of McCain, whose maverick streak is thought to have cross-party appeal, say he is in the best position to thrive in the aftermath of election results that illustrated the GOP's weakness among independents.
