Can McCain make hay of straw poll?
The Arizona senator and other GOP presidential hopefuls get their first test today in Memphis. Rob Hotakainen, Star Tribune Last update: March 11, 2006 – 12:27 AM MEMPHIS, TENN. – All eyes will be on Arizona Sen. John McCain today as hundreds of Republican activists from Mississippi to Minnesota—26 states in all—vote in a straw poll that could bestow early front-runner status on a GOP candidate for the 2008 presidential race. Planning for the post-Bush era, Republican activists will make their first major assessment of McCain, who struggled in the South when he challenged President Bush for the nomination in 2000. But he has one big thing going in his favor: He fares the best in polling match-ups against Sen. Hillary Clinton, the early Democratic front-runner. “He hasn’t campaigned a whole lot in the South, but pragmatism is a powerful political force,” Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott said Friday. “We want to win, and he’s the best we’ve got.” In what’s billed as the first big dog-and-pony
