McCain's Weak Fundraising And The Smear Of CNN's Michael Ware

John McCain's politically moltivated photo-opt trip to Iraq ended badly Monday as his campaign released anemic donation figures for the first campaign reporting period. McCain took in just $12.5 million, compared to the far superior figures of $23 million in total receipts for opponent Mitt Romney and $17 million in total receipts for Rudolph Giuliani.

Next to the heavilly guarded appearance of McCain in Iraq, where he claimed an improving security situation while flanked by a security envelop of 3 Blackhawk helicopters, 2 Apache helicopters, and a contigent of U.S. soldiers on the ground with HumVees, McCain's low campaign total was very disappointing.

A further bad aftertaste from the McCain Iraq visit was a wrong report from The Drudge Report falsely claiming that CNN reporter Michael Ware heckled McCain during his press conference. CNN was quick to post the tape of the press conference of McCain's on their Pipeline video service, hurting the credibility of Drudge and others who made the heckling claim. Reporter Ware merely listened to the press conference, said nothing, and when he raised his hand to ask a question, the press conference was abruptly ended.

Even though most Republican voters still support the Bush Administration's position on the Iraq War, McCain's hawkish views on the war have not been helpful to him this year among Republican voters. McCain no doubt had hoped to get a political bounce from his Iraq visit, partially to validate his own views on the war, but the heavily secured visit to the Iraqi marketplace, the low campaign cash income and the wrongful attacks certainly marked another John McCain campaign effort that fell flat on it's face.