Here’s David Brody’s take on how today’s New York Times story that insinuated John McCain had an affair (without producing any hard evidence) will affect the Arizona senator’s attempts to woo evangelicals:

Obviously an article like this doesn’t help McCain among the conservatives he’s trying to win over, especially social conservatives. But let’s take a step back for a moment.
The NY Times has NO evidence in their story that there was actually a romantic relationship. No phone calls, e-mails, etc.

Will some people be put off by the alleged romantic relationship? Sure, but I’m not convinced it’s a killer when it comes to McCain’s courting of the evangelical vote.
It may be one more reason not to vote for McCain for some Evangelicals. But my hunch is that for the most part, this story does nothing to radically change McCain’s relationship with Evangelicals. I mean, what? All of a sudden Evangelicals won’t vote for him because of this, or now vote for Obama or Clinton? I don’t see it.
Also, the article actually has many cases where McCain is shown to take the high road when it comes to putting his principles first over the desires of lobbyists. Considering McCain’s track record on ethics reform, I think it’s a hard sell to suggest he’s some sort of phony on the issue. It’s going to take more than one NY Times article for that to stick.
Bottom line: it’s a tough article for the McCain camp to swallow, but just how long will it stick around? If it’s 48 hours and mostly gone, no harm, no foul. If other newspapers start to follow up and this becomes a trickle, trickle, trickle deal, then it ends up being more problematic.

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