2008: McCain Analysis

Time has an extensive analysis of the current state of John McCain and his increasingly bumpy road to the '08 GOP nomination. JMac has lost his way from his previous incarnation as a moderate maverick, now pandering to the right wing in hopes of drawing a clear distinction between himself and liberal Giuliani. Yes, he does want to be the "perfect candidate" for the GOP.

As a rallying cry. "Common sense conservatism" doesn't have quite the ring of "Straight Talk Express." But the new slogan on the website of John McCain's presidential exploratory committee--a slogan he manages to repeat at least three times in every speech he gives these days--tells you all you need to know about how different this presidential campaign will be from his last one. McCain '08 will be a bigger, more conventional operation--a tank, not a slingshot. The prevailing wisdom about McCain used to be that his bipartisan appeal would make him a sure bet in a presidential race--if only he could get past the Republican primary. But as more and more of the party establishment climb aboard a campaign that McCain has not yet even formally launched, it's starting to look as if the opposite may be true. By trying to become the perfect candidate for the primaries, McCain could be creating difficulties for himself in a general election.

McCain is even beginning to peddle talk of war with Iran. Here's what JMac said in Rudy's NYC territory yesterday: - Sen. John McCain told a pro-Israel audience in Manhattan yesterday that Iran is "a possibly deranged and surely dangerous regime." Although he called war with Iran a last resort, he added, "There is only one thing worse than a military solution, and that, my friends, is a nuclear-armed Iran."

Is someone afraid of Rudy?