John McCain Launches Political Action Committee: Country First

Posted by David All
Wed, 2009-01-07 13:56

Country First PAC LaunchesFormer Presidential candidate John McCain has just sent an email announcing the launch of his new political action committee, Country First.

An excerpt from the email:

Country First will allow us to strengthen our Party, better define our Republican ideals and message, recruit and back strong, dedicated candidates and continue our efforts to bring real reform to government by always putting our country and the noble ideals she stands for first.

Together, we can make government more responsive to today's problems and more answerable to the people. That's why I hope you will become a Charter Member of Country First and support our cause by following this link to make a generous contribution of any amount today.

With your help we can work to elect these new leaders to Governorships, Statehouses, the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 and beyond. Once in office they will become fierce advocates for limited government, economic opportunity, personal responsibility and strong national security.

I asked John McCain technology adviser Becki Donatelli about the PAC and she remarked, "Senator McCain has chosen to first announce the formation of County First PAC to his online community and to continue his commitment to service to America, our party ideals and to bring real reform to our government."

The email asks for donations to be a "Charter Member" of the PAC -- but I found my way to the front-page of the website where I also found a video. The video is very much John McCain's story about how he puts Country First.

I'm not convinced that McCain's story -- though extremely compelling, heroic, etc. -- is enough to make me want to join up in his "movement." It was enough to make me vote for him. But I'd rather see stories of how normal folks -- like "you and me" -- are putting our Country First. That's probably forthcoming but it's not the tone from the outset of the launch.

I'm going to put Country First PAC in a bookmark folder titled "Fmr. POTUS Cand. PACs" with Huck PAC and Free & Strong America PAC. It's already becoming a crowded folder.