John McCain is not the most animated guy you ever met. Only Dick Cheney is plausibly more somnambulent.

So who's bright idea was it to create a monochromatic website for his presidential campaign?

Other than that, the design is clean and even striking with some nice photography of McCain.

...but please--a little color.

Yesterday, former Senator Phil Gramm sang the praises of John McCain as our future President.

I believe the man we need to meet the mortal need today is here. He is experienced, but has not lost his common sense or his ability to be outraged. His conservatism is not the result of a studied philosophy, but of common sense and personal observation. His name is John McCain. He might not be the right president for all times, but he is the right president for these times.

The same day McCain sought to elevate his prospects by stepping on the reputation of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," McCain said to applause.

Ironically, Gramm compares McCain to Lincoln, know for his extraordinary magnanimity towards his rivals. McCain is no Lincoln. McCain's public denunciation of Rumsfeld wasn't just political theater, but emblematic of a deep, probably fatal flaw in his character.

McCain is a petty tyrant.

John McCain flirting again...-->

OK, we don't hate him, we just aren't excited about him being the next president. The question is why?

Don Surber thinks the answer is simple--McCain-Feingold.

The fundamental difference between McCain 2000 and McCain 2008 is that he put his name on a law that forbids people from speaking out against their congressman within 60 days of an election.

Well, at very least it didn't help. McCain is like an unfaithful spouse--he says he loves you, but the constant betrayals make trusting him impossible. Sooner or later you wonder if you wouldn't be better off without him.

I was genuinely surprised to learn that John McCain had declined to attend CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference). His rivals had no such compunctions (Romney addresses the conference this afternoon...)

John Podhoretz provides a possible explanation:

If I were a McCain adviser, there's no way I would recommend he attend CPAC. The stakes are simply too high. It's a total sandbagging opportunity for people who want to derail him. The last thing he needs is a headline like "Conservatives boo McCain," and you know people attending CPAC know it and would love nothing more than to provide that headline. Anything less than a performance that wowed his enemies on the Right would only do him injury.

I guess this evokes the obvious question--why the hell is McCain running for the Republican nomination if he fears conservatives?

My guess is that McCain would be happier in a third party, one that didn't include social conservatives, but the reality of third parties is that they don't elect presidents, so he'll try to finesse the nomination and create a private constituency as president.

This is a massive miscalculation.

Consider the Harriet Meirs debacle. Back in the day, the President's men would have made a few discrete phonecalls to line up support and the real obstacle would have been the Senate Judicial Committee. Now there is simply too much autonomy, too many voices. Nobody is going to finesse anything.

A successful candidate cannot steer around various hostile, or perceived hostile constituencies. Instead he will have to find the true heart of the country as Ronald Reagan did. Reagan didn't exclude, he encompassed, and he did it by embodying and thereby reminding people of the characteristics and attitude of of our best selves.

McCain's campaign is already in trouble for reasons I've already discussed elsewhere. Skipping CPAC may one day be viewed as the final nail in the coffin of his presidential ambitions.

Drudge reports that the McCain campaign is conducting a major retooling.

McCain is revamping his campaign finance effort, including adopting big-dollar fundraising techniques pioneered by President Bush, and is delaying his official campaign announcement in order to deliver what his aides said would be a major speech seeking to explain his support for President Bush's policies in Iraq.

The change in course by McCain's campaign comes at a time of "sharp anxiety triggered among McCain's supporters following the release of numbers showing him trailing both his competitors in raising money. These changes also come as polls show continued unease with McCain among Republicans."

McCain the former front-runner has seriously lagged Romney and Giuliani in fund-raising--12 million to his rivals 20 and 23 million dollar totals for the past quarter.

McCain is no quitter, and while he thinks he has a chance, he'll keep plugging along, but he should seriously think about quitting at this point. A candidate with the kind of national reputation he has being in the position he is at this early date is pretty much a deathknell. He's not suddenly going to get more popular, particularly in view of the baggage he's dragging behind him. Thanks to McCain-Feingold, candidates have to raise nearly 10 times the money they did in 2000. So much for getting the money out of politics.

McCain's problem is simple--his rivals are simply more attractive candidates than he is. Romney and Giuliani simply have better leadership credentials and a whole host of minor candidates have better conservative bona fides.

He's yesterday's man.

My guess is that he doesn't last through June.

Ultimately, you can't get love from people who really only love themselves.

John McCain's 2000 "straight talk express" endeared him to the media, but to use Jacob Weisberg's metaphor--it was a hooker's affection for a generous John.

"Journalists go weak in the knees around the guy," wrote Slate's Jacob Weisberg, who admitted joining the swoon. "McCain is easier to get access to than a Hong Kong hooker," a Time cover story announced. Ari Fleischer, the spokesman for candidate George W. Bush, complained that "John McCain is a media darling."

McCain should have recalled his highschool experience. The "cool kids" would flatter you as long as you did their homework, allowed you to cheat of your test, and bought them beer and cigarettes. Ultimately it was a pathetic existence--unrequited love.

Now, the people who could actually help him--conservatives, look askance at a "maverick" who doesn't seem to know what he wants to be when he grows up. Paradoxically, the one thing he has been consistent on is the war, which the media in their self-serving "mean girls" way have declared a liability.

Always dance with the one that brung ya.

How much patience should a President have and does John McCain have enough?

Abraham Lincoln set the bar pretty high, managing an impossible situation with rivals in his own party and opposition without, through good humor, patience, imagination and sensitivity. One must point out that he still died by an assassin's hand, demonstrating how tough the job of President really is.

John McCain is on record many times for running roughshod over his colleagues, bullying his way to his ultimate goals. A few years ago, Dick Cheney, told Patrick Leahy to conduct an anatomically impossible act after Leahy had subjected Cheney to extensive character assassination and then sought to shake his hand as if nothing had happened. Cheney's response was impolitic, but probably appropriate.

McCain on the other hand, suggested the same act to John Cornyn simply because the Senator wouldn't buckle under to McCain's agenda.

At a bipartisan gathering in an ornate meeting room just off the Senate floor, McCain complained that Cornyn was raising petty objections to a compromise plan being worked out between Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. He used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal.

Things got really heated when Cornyn accused McCain of being too busy campaigning for president to take part in the negotiations, which have gone on for months behind closed doors. "Wait a second here," Cornyn said to McCain. "I've been sitting in here for all of these negotiations and you just parachute in here on the last day. You're out of line."

McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors (not to mention the current vice president, who made news a few years back after a verbal encounter with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont).

"[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room," shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn't be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.

Cornyn's office declined to comment on the incident.

Cornyn's refusal to exploit the issue is what I would call presidential demeanor--he had the presence of mind to realize that he had to work with John McCain and nothing would be served in embarrassing him.

John McCain acted like an ass, and the implications of his arrogance, casual disregard for his colleagues and disregard for civil behavior are serious indeed for a man who would like to be president. Things are going to be very tough for the next president and we will desperately need someone with self-control and an ability to deal with his political enemies on productive terms.

At one point, even a few months ago, I said I could be happy with any of the main contenders for the Republican nomination. That is no longer the case--McCain is total unsuitable and should consider retirement instead.

Further demonstrating his lack of presidential demeanor, John McCain slams Romney on immigration:

"Maybe I should wait a couple weeks and see if it changes," Mr. McCain said of Mr. Romney's position on immigration this week. "Maybe he can get out his small varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his yard."

I think McCain just implied that Mitt is under endowed in the er-r, gun department.

Alleged flip-flopping just doesn't compare with the political catastrophe of McCain-Kennedy. I am convinced that McCain just killed his presidential hopes with this bill. Hugh Hewitt's comments were well put:

Just as Bob Dole unleashed his inner grumpy old man when defeat presented itself, McCain is now doing the same. Not that it matters at this point, but if McCain wants to save his campaign from dying at the hands of the immigration issue, he’s going to have to do a lot better than hurl childish insults. He’s actually going to have to convince the Republican Party that he’s right.

Romney on the other hand hasn't put a foot wrong. The polls in Iowa show him with 30% as opposed to 18% for McCain and 17% for Giuliani. The candidate has spent a lot of time in Iowa and it shows. He's not home-free by any means, but its a much better place to be than the alternative.

John McCain just can't seem to catch a break. While some pundit praised his performance during the last debate, Frank Luntz's focus group dialed him down and out. The "strong on terror" position isn't having the impact it might because frankly, virtually the entire cohort of candidates is credibly "strong on terror". Its the old Clinton maxim--match your opponents strengths and emphasize your own differences.

McCain, already lagging in the fund-raising and spending far too much too early, is now facing the nightmare of seeing his fundraisers abandoning him for the Thompson campaign.

My personal view is that McCain is out of runway--the immigration debate has nailed the coffin lid shut. Unless Thompson screws up very badly, McCain simply won't make it through the third quarter.

I am to admit, I seriously underestimated Fred Thompson, and I'm still at a loss to understand what is driving his campaign--I just don't get the attraction. Regardless, his co-opting of the McCain machine makes him a serious contender even coming in this late in the game. Of course, he's not really been tested as a candidate yet, and ultimately I think he'll have a serious problem competing with Romney and Giuliani who are both very quick on their feet. If Fred is "Fred", he's going to say something unfortunate--such as his inadvertent slip on Hannity & Colmes that abortion shouldn't be criminalized. That's a defensible position, but its highly impolitic for a presidential candidate. On the other hand, if he's "handled", he'll lose his best weapon--his spontaneity.

Two thirds of the Bush pioneers and rangers are still uncommitted to candidates. In my view, they are waiting for a sure bet, and its still not clear who will be the clear frontrunner. I know--Rudy is ahead in the polls, and Romney is leading in Iowa, but no one seriously expects that someone with Giuliani's views and record can win the nomination, which of course is why Romney and McCain pretty much ignore him and focus instead on each other. With McCain out, it will be a question of how Thompson and Romney shake out.

Romney still hasn't allayed doubts about his conservative credentials, and its getting to be critical that he does very quickly--before Fred gets in for real.

McCain's two top campaign aides quit suddenly and effectively immediately, in one case ending a ten year relationship with the candidate.

While the AP went into their usual explanation that McCain's campaign is suffering because of his support for the Iraq war, it doesn't explain why all the other Republican candidates support it with equal or nearly equal fervor.

The real reason, as conservatives understand all too well, is that McCain has a couple of albatrosses around his neck--McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy. Maverick is just another way of saying "out of touch with the base".

Regardless of the reasons, its all ending with a whimper rather than a bang. Only a year ago, McCain was riding high as the front runner, sucking up endorsements across the country. I think McCain will try to hang on for a few more weeks--its hard to let go of a ten year dream, but frankly it impossible to see how he can solve his fund-raising problem with the kind of hammer blow to the campaign's credibility. Its a winner-takes-all system and McCain is actually worse off than the long-shot candidates because at this point he looks like a loser.

Another senior staffer has left the building

The bottom line is that for senior campaign workers, this is a business. Going down with the ship is just a bad career move.

The spin is that McCain can pull a Kerry, and resurrect his chances with a new team. Now for the missing context--Kerry was facing a bunch of underfunded lightweights with the notable exception of Crazy Howard. Republicans were gleeful at the prospect of a Dean candidacy, but when it comes to power, the Democrats can be cold-eyed realists--no way was Howard Dean going to be the party's standard bearer and John Edwards suit was just as empty as it is now. Ted Kennedy and the other power elite in the party saw that you couldn't make Howard Dean electable, but you could make John Kerry the nominee with some professional help and a little elbow grease.

The fact is, McCain already had some of the best pros in the business--many part of Bush's team. Its not like there is any room to upgrade. Additionally, he is facing at least three well-funded, highly-credible rivals in Giuliani, Romney and Thompson. Finally, McCain is where he is because the base has no tolerance for his stance on immigration and we're still smarting from the ill-conceived mess of McCain-Feingold.

There is simply no upside for McCain in continuing and as the defections continue, it just gets more and more embarrassing. I have considerable disagreements with John McCain, but I respect him and its just wrong to see him go out a laughingstock. Perhaps its too late already, but he should hold a press conference and declare the end of his candidacy.

He's still an 800 lb. gorilla in the Senate and could be for another two or three presidential terms. In the end he'll have made his mark on history regardless of what happens next year.

Recommendations by Pundit's Blog. All good advice--about four months ago.

Scott Adams operates under the premise that luck evens out--a terrible early life means you'll have better luck later on (i.e. Reagan, Clinton). All the breaks early on, mean bad things later on.

Romney scares the hell out of me. That guy was born wealthy, handsome, and brilliant. And he keeps getting smarter, more successful, and better looking. Everything he touches turns to gold. Luckwise, he’s running on fumes. If he gets elected, I expect the moon to fall out of orbit and land in Ohio.

McCain's had the terrible luck of getting shot down and becoming a prisoner of war, but then the good luck of surviving. Adams worries that his good luck quotient has topped out--it certainly looks that way.

Political Punch--Jake Tapper phones it in.

The American Pundit mocks NBC's political analysis. He's right. If you want to know what is going on, read conservative blogs. The MSM are either clueless or carrying water.

John Hawkins has what I think is some really good insight into McCain's media problems.

...it's particularly difficult for McCain to recover because he is widely despised by conservative media and most right-wing activists, while many of his supporters tend to be, in my opinion, less conservative and more casual about their politics than supporters of the other candidates. That's problematic for McCain because it makes him much more reliant on praise from the mainstream press than the other candidates and they're down on him for supporting the war and for pandering to Republicans much more than usual while trying to win their votes.

So, this is the trap McCain is in: he can't gain much ground with conservatives because the people whose opinions matter most to them don't like him. However, the MSM can't deliver a victory for him because they're down on him and so, he's not ever going to be able to get to the point where conservatives will start trying to jump on the bandwagon because he looks likely to win.

Its pretty much a reflection of what I said the other day..."Maverick is just another way of saying out-of-touch-with-the-base." Ironically, McCain and Hillary Clinton have a great deal in common--she's trying to win the nomination by finessing the base as well. This has worked in the past because the Democrat base was in flux. You could roll the base with enough money to buy feet on the ground. The far left is catching up to the conservative base in terms of creating a cohesive, monied and politically independent force. They run the Democrat party now, not the other way around. Hillary has the advantage over McCain in that she can tap into Bill's political infrastructure to raise money, but otherwise she is in much the same boat--good national polls, real problems in the early primary states and real competition from the darlings of the left. Possible the money makes the difference, but McCain's situation should be a "for the grace of God, there go I" moment for the Hillary campaign.

Mom might not be making the talking head circuit for a while after MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked her opinion of Mitt Romney:

"As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal. And to clean that up, again, it's not a subject," Roberta McCain said.

John McCain quickly stepped in: "The views of my mother's are not necessarily the views of mine."

"Well, that's my view and you asked me," Roberta answered.

I haven't met anyone in their nineties who didn't speak what was on their mind - good, bad, or ugly; McCain's mother reinforces my observation. I don't think McCain expected his Mom's response - he looked pretty uncomfortable.

Even at ninety-five Mrs McCain displayed a "mother Bear" instinct to defend her son from a perceived threat.

Will the gaffe matter to Mormons? Probably not. Too much. The Utah Governer, Jon Huntsman Jr. is a McCain supporter. His father, who I consider more influental however, is a key supporter of Mitt Romney.

Will Mrs McCain's disparaging remarks about Mormons increase his support in the Bible belt state of South Carolina? Hard to tell, but I would hope not.

Also, listen to Matthews. Twice he refers to John McCain as Roberta McCain's husband. I was beginning to think he didn't know better.

McCain show us his Kung Fu--turning negatives into positives.

The New York Times wants to print an article accusing John McCain of letting an industry lawyer write parts of the telcom legislation. The McCain campaign is insisting that they don't.

McCain describes the timing as "interesting" which is an understatement considering that he's basically risen from the dead to become very competitive in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Yet the Times says its been working on the article for six weeks, before McCain started showing signs of life again.

I'm not sure why the McCain campaign is putting up such a fuss. It seems unlikely that the New York Times is all that interested in spiking their favorite Republican unless they are lending far more credence to poll matchups with Hillary that any sane and reasonable person should.

I am perplexed at the reasoning that goes into the McCain camps unwillingness to the see the article published--it will be published, and just before Christmas when few people are going to be paying attention seems an ideal time for it. It gives McCain time to formulate a response.

To wait after the initial primaries is problematic, because part of the story will be that McCain tried to squelch the story, If McCain manages to win in New Hampshire, this will effectively poison the victory.

John McCain is an enigma.

On the one hand he was right about Iraq, on the other, he was wrong about campaign finance reform and immigration.

I've always thought I would like the guy, he's self-deprecating and witty on television and there simply is no doubt that he is a patriot of the first order. But there is the other John McCain--the one that you don't see in front of the cameras, the one whose 2000 campaign George Will characterizes as a protracted snarl.

The John McCain who once joked that Chelsea Clinton was as ugly as she was because Janet Reno was her father.

Surely the anger that characterized McCain as a young, impetus man of sixty-four has dissipated in someone now in his seventies?

Not so much.

After all, it was only about six months ago that he lashed-out at fellow Republican John Cornyn in an expletive-laced diatribe on the Senate floor.

The problem with John McCain as president is that you don't know which one will be showing up.

H/T Ace of Spades HQ

Welcome to the new world of politics--were everything you say is digitized and kept forever.

Repressing free speech isn’t limited to third world dictatorships and Canada. To exorcise the ghosts of the Keating Five, John McCain has ensured most Americans are unable to broadcast their views of presidential candidates 30 days before a primary and 60 days before an election.

However, it’s not our access to the airwaves that concerns me most about McCain and the McCain Feingold law. It’s his sincere belief he is right. The corollary is he will be driven to appoint judges who share his belief. He will find them; but a judge who agrees the First Amendment can indeed be abridged by Congress isn’t going to come from the conservative world. With Congress most likely to remain in the hands of Democrats, he would certainly have no problem getting such judges approved.

A McCain presidency would be a disaster setback* for conservatives.

UPDATE:

Patrick Ruffini sees similarities to the 2000 campaign and predicts another McCain New Hampshire victory; along the way he opines:

In stark contrast to rest of the nation, it is very difficult for a candidate running as a conservative to win a Republican primary in the Northeast. McCain won every New England state except Maine against Bush in 2000, even Bush’s ancestral Connecticut.

* Modified 2 Jan 2008. Disaster is too strong of a word; while not my prefered Republican nominee, McCain is certainly head and shoulders above any Democrat contender.

[...not that McCain is evil, I just like the moniker from the 1972 movie with John Astin--Evil Roy Slade, the meanest man in the west...]

As any number of his colleagues has attested to--John McCain does not like to be contradicted. He's right damn it, and you're going to like it. He gets away with it in Washington, but its somewhat more problematic on the campaign trail.

During the Q & A after his speech, he was asked about his position on immigration and was booed as he gave his response.

“Maam, you’ve got to be polite, I’ll be polite to you. I’ll even call on you next,” McCain said. He then continued his response when someone yelled out again.

“Ahh come on give it a rest,” he said before explaining how he would address 10 million people left in the country after 2 million were deported automatically. More voices shouted back from the crowd, “How many taxes do you want to spend?”

McCain stopped and said “I will secure the border…I am not going to call up a soldier and tell him I am deporting his mother…I’m not going to do it. You can do it,” he said to applause before moving on to the next question.

On the bus after the event McCain told to reporters, “That was fun!”

“There is a level of emotion that is hard to explain with this issue and it was evident that my explanation was not going to be heard.” McCain said.

The voters of Michigan will ultimately make their judgment, but it seems to me that "vote for me, I'm right" is a much less effective message than, "I see what you are going through, allow me to lend a hand..."

A McClatchy/MSNBC poll has Romney up by eight points...

McClatchy Newspapers reported: “Romney led McCain by 2 to 1 among voters who ranked the economy and jobs their top concern. He led Huckabee by a slightly greater margin among those voters. He also led McCain by 2 to 1 among likely voters who called themselves Republicans.”

The analysis continued: “McCain owes his solid standing to independents and Democrats, taking 38 percent of their support, while Huckabee had 22 percent and Romney had 18 percent. ... Evangelical Christians represented 46 percent of the likely primary vote in the poll, and Huckabee got 31 percent of their support while Romney got 23 percent.”

The poll of 400 likely Republican primary voters in Michigan was conducted by Mason-Dixon by telephone from Wednesday through Friday. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

After the debacle in New Hampshire, poll credibility has taken a major hit, but since none of the candidates is black, its nice to see Romney leading by somewhat more than the margin of error. The unknown in this open primary, is how many Democrats can be mobilized for McCain. If I was McCain, I wouldn't hold up a great deal of hope--it hard work motivating Democrats to come out for their own primary.

I've decided that if Mark wins his bet, he's taking everybody out for sushi on his 2009 trip through red rock country...

It's a big day:

1. Michigan Primary Day - there's plenty of positive and negative momentum at stake. Down, McCain! You've been the most effective anti-conservative influence in the country for years. Were you a Democrat, you might have done some good. You're like a male stripper at a rugby club night out - right man, wrong party. Down, mighty McCain, down in the hole!

2. Macworld 2008 Keynote - this year's virtuoso session with Steve Jobs. I saw him in London in the early 90's giving a 2 hour NeXT demo and was impressed by the assurance of this man who'd been fired from Apple mark 1. [As an aside, the original World Wide Web system was developed on a NeXT machine.] The big rumour for today is that il miglior fabbro will announce an ultraportable, the Airbook, dispensing with dvd drive, spinning hard drive, ethernet conection, but using flash memory and wifi only.
Drool.. Note the wing shaped profile..oooh. Turn on a fan, tip the Airbook to a slight angle of attack and it will sit in space 6 inches above your knees. Cool. What it needs is a decent docking station...an iMac minus its innards with a slot at the top to drop in the Airbook.

Ron Fournier of the AP writes an editorial? An article? ...bemoaning the loss of John McCain to that rascal Mitt Romney.

The man who spoke hard truths to Michigan lost. Of all the reasons John McCain deserved a better result Tuesday night, his gamble on the economy stands out. The Arizona senator had the temerity to tell voters that a candidate who says traditional auto manufacturing jobs "are coming back is either naive or is not talking straight with the people of Michigan and America."

Instead of pandering, McCain said political leaders must "embrace green technologies," adding: "That's the future. That's what we want."

Romney jumped all over McCain, playing to the fears of voters in a state with the nation's highest unemployment rate. "I've heard people say that the auto jobs are gone and they're never coming back," Romney told his audiences. "Well, baloney, I'm going to fight for every single good job."

Of course, he'd fight for every job. So would McCain, or any future president. But how?

Judging by the brief campaign in Michigan, one candidate would flail away at the problem with empty rhetoric while the other would ask Americans to come to grips with the harsh realities of global competition, a tech-based economy and the urgent need to retrain a generation of workers.

The tear-stained missive stands starkly at odds with the reality of McCain's rather odious appeal to Democrats to come vote in the Republican primary. From Powerline

Last night we reported that the McCain campaign blasted a telephone call with Senator Lieberman's appeal for Democrats to vote for Senator McCain in Michigan's Republican primary yesterday. According to reader Ronald Knott, the text of the message was as follows (emphasis added):

Hi. This Senator Joe Lieberman. I’m calling for John McCain.

As you may remember I was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2000. But this year I’m supporting Republican John McCain for President because he is the person best qualified to lead our country forward. He’s a straight talker who will always do what’s right for our country regardless of partisan politics and he’s the only candidate prepared to be commander-in-chief from day one.

There isn’t a competitive Democratic primary in Michigan this year and all registered voters are able to participate in a Republican primary. So I’m calling today to urge you to vote in the Republican primary on January 15 for Senator John McCain. He’ll break through the partisanship and make our government in Washington work for all the people again. .

To parse McCain:

"You have no hope and I have no ideas, but at least I'm honest about it..."

John Hawkins:

If John McCain is the Republican Party's nominee, we will essentially have two Democrats running for the presidency.

Ironically, that was from a post also entitled "Quote of the Day", but quoting John McCain.

"I believe my party has gone astray," McCain said yesterday, singling out GOP stands on environmental issues and racial set-asides.

"I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and their philosophy," he said. "But I also feel the Republican Party can be brought back to the principles I articulated before."

McCain's win in South Carolina is a matter of record, but he did it with 100,000 fewer votes than he lost with in 2000.

In 2000, running against George W. Bush and the entire Carroll Campbell machine in South Carolina, John McCain got 42% of the vote, and 240,000 votes out of 573,000 or so cast.

Tonight, he got 33% of the vote in a field where his top challengers—Romney and Giuliani—aren't even running, and 135,000 actual votes. If just the same people who voted for McCain in 2000 had voted for him today, he would have won 50+% of the South Carolina vote. That would have been truly impressive.

Instead, John McCain LOST the support of 100,000 people—and he's the winner?

McCain had the same "success" in New Hampshire (McCain, 2000: 48%, 116,000 votes; McCain 2008: 37%, 89,000 votes) and Michigan (2000: 50%, 600,000 votes; 2008: 30%, 257,000 votes).

The media loves McCain and he's now being called the front-runner, but the reality is that he has fatal weaknesses as a candidate and his performance so far has just underscored how serious that weakness is.

The cracks are only going to get worse now.

There are some relationships that you don't ever want to see the light of day.

Love from the New York Times editors is something you definitely want to keep in the closet.

We have strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president. The leading candidates have no plan for getting American troops out of Iraq. They are too wedded to discredited economic theories and unwilling even now to break with the legacy of President Bush. We disagree with them strongly on what makes a good Supreme Court justice.

Still, there is a choice to be made, and it is an easy one. Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.

Wow. Its like there from another planet. Pity rather than annoyance fills by bosom, for these are the words of the imminently unemployed in a tight journalism market.

Nevertheless, this has to be a huge hit on McCain, basically affirming all the things conservatives have been saying about him for years at this point.

I think this, and McCain's poor debate performance tonight, basically seals his fate He's headed for a third place finish.

McCain apparently realizes he blew it last night and the Romney got one over on him again. While McCain made a point of saying he respected all of his rivals during the debate, this morning he puts the lie to it by assailing Romney as a "mere manager" lacking leadership qualities.

“America is looking for leaders, not managers,” McCain said this morning. “Governor Romney has touted his qualities and experience and resume as a manager. I am telling the American people, and they know it, that I am a leader.”

“We hire managers all the time,” McCain said. “Leadership is people who inspire. People like Ronald Reagan, people like Gen. [David] Petraeus. Leadership is people who have had the hands on experience and the patriotism and service to the country and the nation, putting all else behind love and service to the country. Leadership is the ability to inspire and the ability to make Americans serve causes greater than their self interests."

"I know how to lead and inspire," McCain said.

I think its pretty clear, after his lackluster performance last night, that McCain does not know how to lead and inspire. He is in fact completely uninspiring. Let me amplify that--McCain's military career was inspiring, but the man himself is not. Ronald Reagan was inspiring. Jack and Bobby Kennedy were inspiring. FDR was inspiring. McCain is off-putting. He is an off-putting man who has done inspiring things--none of them recently.

Romney on the other hand, is clearly inspirational. It is why he is in this race and winning. Its not Kennedy-style inspiration rhetoric (at least not yet), but a uniquely Romney style of inspiration that says "yes we can" and has a record of accomplishment that makes the assertion credible. McCain tells Michigan voters "your toast" and calls it straight talk, but its really a lack of leadership, and voters responded to it.

Nobody is buying this crap, but by all means keep saying it and let people see the real John McCain--a nasty man.