Yesterday George Allen brought in one of the Republican Party's big guns, John McCain, for an event billed as a show of veterans' support for Allen's reelection bid. No doubt this event was seen as an opportunity to divert public attention away from the story brewing since late last week regarding a (possible) racial slur the Senator threw at a supporter of Democrat Jim Webb of South Asian descent. However, Senator McCain had a bit of trouble staying on message, apparently, as Jim Hodges reports for the Newport News Daily Press.

Maybe somebody should have clued in Sen. John McCain.

First, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., wound up a few dozen veterans with a "we win, they lose, there's no substitute victory" strategy for Iraq, then McCain followed with a joke about a monkey flying an airplane.

McCain, R-Ariz., was in town Wednesday night to lure some votes for his Republican colleague, Allen, who has heard enough monkey jokes lately. Especially since a report was unearthed that he used "macaca" in reference to S.R. Sidarth, a worker of Indian descendent for the campaign of Allen's Democratic opponent, Jim Webb.

Macaca is a genus of monkey.

As stunning as McCain's poor taste and apparent dearth of comedic talent were (particularly given Jon Stewart's penchant for swooning over the Arizona Senator), there was another aspect of the event that bodes even less well for both McCain and Allen: no one cared enough about either of them to show up.

The evening was billed as a "veterans for Allen" rally, but the hotel's conference room was less than half-filled, even after a phone push for a larger turnout. Veterans came from as far away as Colonial Heights, but their numbers were little greater than the reporters and camera people who were there.

As it was, the rally started 10 minutes late and finished more than 20 minute early, according to a campaign worker's schedule. [emphasis added]

It's August in Virginia. It's extremely warm and muggy. People are loath to get out of the air conditioning, even to walk to and from their car on the way to a political event. But neither George Allen nor John McCain -- who are considered two of the leading contenders for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination (and perhaps the two leading contenders) -- could bring in more supporters to an event than media? Even after "a phone push for a larger turnout"? If that doesn't say something about the current slate of Republican White House contenders and the current state of the George Allen reelection campaign, I don't know what does.