Does this mean those terrible John McCain ads are going to get even worse?:
Mark McKinnon, the lead media consultant for Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) presidential bid, is stepping down from that role -- making good on a pledge he made last year not to work against Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) in the fall campaign....
Whether McKinnon would abide by that promise has been the subject of considerable speculation since that time. McKinnon is widely regarded as a trusted member of McCain's inner circle, and many within the campaign acknowledged that losing him would be a heavy blow to the effort.
The task of creating the ads and media strategy for the campaign will now fall to a trio of consultants -- Fred Davis, Chris Mottola and Mike Hudome -- known collectively as Foxhole Media. Hudome will be heading up the effort.
I confess that I'm pretty surprised that McKinnon is upholding this promise, which was made at a time when a McCain-Obama general election matchup looked rather unlikely. But kudos to him, I suppose, for keeping his word.
Update: Whoops, just noticed Mike had already noted this at the Stump.
--Christopher Orr