"So, from various right-leaning libertarian angles (medical, business, regulating speech), I believe that he's losing vital support as well"

Ditto from this corner. PS, I do not want steroids in baseball, but it should be up to MLB to regulate and ban it.

McCain vs Hillary is a win-win solution from the MSM perspective. Ugh.

To me, a worse alternative would be for McCain to go Bullmoose on us and split the conservative vote allowing another Clinton into the Whitehouse with less than 50% of the vote.

I agree with Scottj. And not only is that a frightening possibility, I don't think such an outcome would upset McCain at all.

The guy's an idiot. I mean, he's not, he's brilliant at certain things, but he's not a Renaissance Man, let's put it that way. Did you see what he tried doing to the Native Americans Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (I have a link!) That clinched it for me. He does the stupidest things, and mostly because he likes being on Sunday talk shows, but also because I really don't think he can see the bigger picture in a lot of things. Maybe that stems from a lack of imagination, I dunno, but I don't think he'd make a good executive.

Would McCain split the conservative vote? BCRA seems to have ticked off a lot of conservatives, as well as libertarians. Plus he's pro-life, so libs wouldn't like him. Is his base simply the MSM?

I was a McCain supporter in the CA primaries for the 2000 election. He seemed everything that Al Bore wasn't, including the cachet of being a bonafide war hero.

But the so-called "Campaign Reform"?? (aka The Incumbent Preservation Act)

And the MSM can't get enough of him ... "Maverick" this, "Maverick" that ... not the least of reasons is that McCain seems to relish that role so much.

feh.

The thing about McCain to bear in mind is that, whatever else you can say about him (and you can say a lot), he unequivocally Gets It on the one big issue that overwhelms all the others - the need to fight and *win* the Millenium War.

Sadly, there aren't all that many Republicans I can say that about with total confidence. President Bush is one of them, thankfully, but we still can see way too much defeatism and wishy-washiness from people who should know better. I think McCain is "wrong" to a greater or lesser degree on most issues, but if it came to a choice between him and a Republican who was "right" on all those other issues but I was only 80% sure about on the Big Issue, I'd vote for McCain in a heartbeat.

I rather liked maverick Senator John McCain; he seemed honest and straightforward, a breath of fresh air and principle in a world of vitriolic, power-hungery partisanship.

But Maverick Senator™ John McCain doesn't interest me. While he occasionally does something useful, over time, he appears to be less a straight-talkin' reformer and more a glory hog whose primary purpose is to find a camera.

--|PW|--

Scottj and Stephen, even if McCain's nomination did end up making social conservatives stay home and result in Hillary in the White House, would that truly be so awful?

Demographically, it's unlikely the Democrats will recapture congressional majorities in either '06 or '08. So a Democrat president would be facing a hostile Congress. And given the out-of-control federal spending that Bush has presided over, frankly, I'd kill for some of that good old-fashioned gridlock, baby.

Brett -

Nothing wrong with a little gridlock, but I'd rather not have a "D" in charge of the executive (read: military. see David C's comment).

When it comes to a Mavrick American, I prefer them with 2 wheels.

The problem with maverick politicians, is that they will never cease to really "piss you off" as they wiggle about like a bowl of Jell-o.

Brett,

Yes, it would be that truly awful.

I've said as much in many other comments, but I'm no McCain fan. I've been voting against him for years.

You guys nail most of the points against him...McCain/Feingold ought to be enough to prevent him from being taken seriously, but the MSM will certainly think he's a saint for it. I wrote about his support for Congress's ridiculous insertion into baseball's steroids "scandal" here. Let's not forget Keating 5 now either. And in today's environment, we'd also have to look at Cindy McCain--who had some sort of prescription drug problem (IIRC).

However, I'm of the opinion that he's sick--and therefore doesn't feel the need to stay on the reservation at all (with the exception noted to David C's point about his understanding of the need to fight this war). I only watched about 2 minutes of his appearance last week on Meet the Press [Was it last Sunday? I forget.], but again, he's sporting that swollen left jawline--where he had cancer removed a couple of years ago. Just a theory.

I think either Bush will anoint Condi thus putting all the money behind her, or Rudy (the hero of 9/11) will beat McCain easily.

Every time I read someone talking about McCain's honesty and straightforwardness I scratch my head. This is the guy who had the stain of the Keating scandal, yet somehow that is forgiven. This is a guy who brought us "campaign finance reform", that execrable piece of legislation brought to you by George Soros and his ilk. This is the guy who bloviates about money infecting politics, all the while maintaining a "non profit research center" that completely skirts campaign finance rules and allows him to maintain his campaign staff's salaries in the luxury to which they've been accustomed, dole out thousands for "causes" that benefit his reelections and finance "studies" that support his positions.