McCain has momentum
It’s less than a week to go to Iowa, and suddenly the talk is about John McCain making a late surge.
McCain’s campaign had faded into the background months ago, but he has kept plugging away and as criticism of Romney’s policy u-turns get louder (two newspapers have run a anyone but Romney editorial) McCain has started to rise in the polls again.
Power Line has an interesting take on McCain:
The real reason why non-conservatives prefer McCain is because he opposed President Bush’s tax cuts, supported comprehensive immigration reform, sponsored McCain-Feingold, denounced effective but harsh interrogation techniques, etc. In other words, precisely the kinds of things the Romney campaign is legitimately pointing to. And the reason why independents like McCain is because he himself is, in many respects, an independent (with all the positives and negatives that go with that status). When the next controversial issue comes up, McCain will stake out his position based on his personal “take,” not on party, or conventionally ideological, principles. The other leading candidates (except perhaps Huckabee) are less likely to do so.
None of this means necessarily means that conservatives shouldn’t vote for McCain. In my view, he is easily the most electable Republican and, if the environment is hostile enough next November, quite possible the only electable one. He’s also sound on more issues than he’s unsound on, including most of the biggest ones. But conservatives should not doubt that a President McCain will infuriate them on more than a few occasions.
McCain is indeed relatively independent. He would be hard for the Democrats to associate with Bush as Kerry asked him to be his VP candidate in 2004.
I’ve long held only Rudy or McCain can win it for the Republicans. McCain had faded from view, but it looks to be all on again.
It’s a bit of a pity that the US doesn’t use preferential voting (like in Australia) for it’s primaries. McCain and Rudy to some degree are competing for the same voters.