While Democrats said 54 percent to 28 percent that McCain puts his country first rather than himself — and the split is the same for independents — Republicans said McCain puts America first by a smaller, 44-35 margin.

Among Republicans, that puts McCain behind well-known figures such as House Speaker Paul Ryan (53-25), Rudy Giuliani (57-16) and Mike Pence (79-9), who are viewed as more likely to make principled decisions. McCain's numbers among Republicans are even more remarkable when you consider that he's a war hero who spent years as a prisoner of war. Despite this, Republicans are still pretty evenly split on whether he puts his country first.

AD

AD

Among Democrats, no Republican scored higher on putting his country first. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), another top Trump critic, was in negative territory among Democrats, with 23 percent saying he puts his country first and 31 percent saying he puts his own interests first.

And in fact, McCain is viewed as principled by more Democrats than any politician tested apart from Bernie Sanders (77-12) and Elizabeth Warren (55-12). Hillary Clinton was not tested, and most other Democrats tested weren't so well-known nationally.

McCain has clearly made a decision to be the most vocal of the Trump critics in the Republican Party today. His speech in Munich, Germany, on Friday was a barnburner (without mentioning Trump directly), and then he doubled down over the weekend.

That's a posture that's going to earn him plaudits from the opposition — as has occasionally been the case in his political career. But it's worth noting that he's still a suspect figure for many Republicans. And it's not clear that by speaking out against Trump, McCain will be persuading many Republicans to share his skepticism of the president.

As I've written before, the GOP is still about as united behind Trump as every president's base has been at this stage of the game.

And comparing McCain's numbers to Giuliani's is instructive. There has not been a more unapologetic Trump supporter than Giuliani. That's how he has come to define himself these days. And he's got very good numbers among Republicans — much better than McCain's.

Running afoul of your party's president is a great strategy for making news, but it's also a recipe for marginalizing yourself among your own party, which is somewhat familiar to McCain.