The Not So Inevitable John McCain

Although I said last night that I expected John McCain to fade as the time to cast actual votes got closer, I did at least expect him to remain competitive for at least a little while. Maybe I was giving him too much credit. Edward Luce at The Financial Times takes a close look at a recent FOX poll (yeah, I know). Among Republican voters polled, McCain comes in second with 22 percent, well behind Giuliani at 34 percent, but still somewhat ahead of the so-far unannounced Newt Gingrich at 15.

(It just occurred to me that this is a great presidential campaign for one-named candidates. We've got Barack, Hillary, Newt, Mitt. Rudy works to some extent.)

I’m not sure what's happening to McCain. He sure seems to be pandering to conservatives, calling for the overturn of Roe v. Wade (although he hasn’t always taken that position). And although he's supported the war and currently supports the escalation, he called Don Rumsfeld one of the worst secretaries of defense the nation has ever had. He said that without any apparent irony that it would reflect badly on his support for the Prez—you know, the guy who actually hired Rumsfeld and never provided proper oversight. You’d have thought that he might've said something about that earlier, when he was a majority member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Whatever's going on with McCain, he's not quite as attractive a candidate--for anybody—as he was seven years ago. But wait until he breaks out the bus again—will all be forgiven?