Deval Patrick Takes Posse to Washington!

I'm with you on that. No way will McCain win.

Funny - I just realised that, just half a year ago, I was sure McCain would win against any Democrat - I just didnt think he'd get through the primaries.

Now, I dont think he'd either get through the primaries or be able to beat Hillary or Obama.

He's been really heading down..

Kissing Bush ass on the subject of the war didn't help, and showed an incredible ignorance of the attitude of the electorate . . .

I'm glad someone else has noticed. He's gone a little nutty. It's really not funny. (I say now...) It's like he sprang a leak recently. He's altered in a recognizable way.

Yeah no, its not just kissing Bush's ass, tho that didnt help. But I think that mostly put Democrats against him who wouldnt vote for him anyway.

But it is Iraq, of course, foremost. The war's getting ever more shriekingly unpopular, and he's profiling himself as a hawk. Not helping.

But its also how he keeps veering unpredictably from one way of talking to another -- now being all goodie conservative, then suddenly lambasting the Repubs from some strident independent perspective. Just getting ever more.. well, unhinged would be too strong a word...

It could just all be because he's vowed to run according to the (Bushite, value-conservative) rules, but doesnt feel it, doesnt get it right, and ever so often cant stop himself and comes out slamming right from the other side. Thats the sympathetic explanation.

But either way he's losing support (literally) left and right -- and just leaving people confused and not trusting him.

That, plus some portrait reportage, even if overall sympathetic, has really been highlighting how old he is, and, you know, kinda .. yeah, just old. Add to that some less sympathetic portraying of him as a grumpy old man who's not with whats going on amymore..

And the polls, of course. They just keep getting worse. Giuliani consistently does better among Republicans than he does - and increasingly so. While McCain is not winning independents over anymore either, which was supposed to be his selling point - if anything, the opposite.

I dunno. It's a long way out still, but he's just starting to smell like toast. And with Iraq ever worsening, him getting older, and other lesser known candidates getting more of a chance to acquaint people with them, time is just not on his side.

McCain is not sane enough to get Liberal or Moderate votes...

... and he not insane enough to get Conservative votes.

I don't think he has a chance to even get by the primary.

<slaps ebrown>

That was an interesting analysis, dear. Scones?

Barry Goldwater;

Barry also

I think that's probably the case. McCain has a lot of mileage to make up with Republican religious conservatives after telling them that Robertson and Falwell have too much influence in the party. He probably was speaking from the heart back then, but political reality, or at least conventional political wisdom, says he has to make nice with those religious conservatives now to get the nomination. It isn't easy for him, obviously. It might even hurt him in the polls right now. But it's better he take a hit right now than later.





If you think McCain has trouble with religious conservatives, wait till you see the problems Rudy is going to have. On abortion and many other ways, McCain is a cookie-cutter conservative. Not Rudy. And the way Rudy treated his wife during their breakup makes Bill & Hillary look like Ozzie & Harriet.






McCain might be the only Republican on the horizon with a believable postion on Iraq, at least to the conservative electorate. He has been agitating for more troops from the get-go, or at least from very early on. Much of the more telling criticism of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld is that they tried to get the war done on the cheap, they figured they could Shock & Awe their way into Baghdad, do a quickie cleanup operation and set up a pro-American government. Other military voices have been saying that many, many more troops were needed to seal the borders, etc. right from the beginning. McCain has been with the latter group. True, McCain is sticking by this 20,000 more troop "surge", which is a lot more like a palliative than a surge, but that will be forgotten in a year and a half.

Assuming that American involvement in Iraq will be in some sort of withdrawal stage by next year, McCain can present a figure to the Republicans that supported the war, but isn't rehashing the same old stuff. And can back it up.


As far as his image going lackluster, don't forget that John Kerry's Democratic bid seemed somnambulent for a long time until Iowa, when he came back strong. A temporary lull in the campaign is not necessarily a sign of the end. Just as Kerry used his "lull" period to shore up support among labor and veteran groups, McCain can just be using his "lull" to shore up support among the religious rightists. Especially if his Republican opponent is Giuliani, who is going to drive the religious types nuts.

McCain is a formidable man with a formidable personal history. He has plenty of time to hit his stride.

PS: I'm not for the guy at all. He is way, way more conservative than a lot of people think, and I don't vote conservative. But I can't see counting him out either.

Would you STFU?

Dys, I do believe that Lash is attempting to either insult your personage or silence your silvery tongue.

Cycloptichorn

<I pulled his ponytail>