Who'da Thought?

Maybe Mike Huckabee is right to hold out for miracles. Maybe it's not a ridiculous cliche to say in this election season that we have to expect the unexpected. Contrary to all expectations (well, all expectations at this blog, anyway), we saw some actual straight talk coming out of the Straight Talk Express today. Here's the AP report on what happened:

John McCain said Monday that to win the White House he must convince a war-weary country that U.S. policy in Iraq is succeeding. If he can't, "then I lose. I lose," the Republican said.

He quickly backed off that remark.

Yeah, I guess. But even backing off, he wasn't willing to pull away from it altogether.

"Let me not put it that stark," the likely GOP nominee told reporters on his campaign bus. "Let me just put it this way: Americans will judge my candidacy first and foremost on how they believe I can lead the country both from our economy and for national security. Obviously, Iraq will play a role in their judgment of my ability to handle national security."

"If I may, I'd like to retract 'I'll lose.' But I don't think there's any doubt that how they judge Iraq will have a direct relation to their judgment of me, my support of the surge," McCain added. "Clearly, I am tied to it to a large degree."

There's no doubt that this is true. He's staked his reputation on being more hawkish on Iraq than even the Prez. It's somewhat surprising that this reality hasn't sunk his chances already. But the entire McCain enterprise relies on him being able to sell not just the surge but the complete Iraq war package.