Interestingly Direct Article About McCain

I'm not sure what to think about Salena Zito's latest article. First of all I don't remember any previous articles by Salena Zito. Secondly it takes a shot at McCain which is not that unusual, but it faults McCain for being too much like Bush which is a bit unusual. He notes that McCain moved to support President Bush, particularly on Iraq, and has surrounded himself with Bush partisans. Obviously this becomes a problem when the War in Iraq proves not to be a roaring success.

. . . instead of seeing -- and stating -- what is so obvious to so many, McCain has chosen to ignore it. He remains Bush's biggest advocate in the war; he has supported the president's call for more troops; he even went to Iraq and said it was safer than most big cities in America.

And it was perhaps at that moment that the transformation was complete: The maverick became a lap dog. The fabled political truth-teller now can’t tell the truth, even when it is obvious to anyone paying even a tiny bit of attention, even when it has become painfully obvious to most Republicans.

The Republican Party is tired of George W. Bush, his stubbornness and his war that cost it control of Congress. Its primary voters are looking for a change; it wants someone who does not remind voters of Bush, someone who does not share his stubbornness and optimism about a war that costs America more lives each week.

I have to say I hope that the Republican party ignores Ms. Zito's column here. Because her analysis seems pretty strong. Her solution, incidentally is Fred Thompson, who presumably will enter the race officially soon (unless he already has and I missed it). The comments indicate that a lot of Conservatives don't like McCain already (because of McCain Fiengold and other unpopular positions he's taken, but that they aren't writing off the Iraq war just yet. The conversation quickly segues into those vowing not to vote for McCain no matter what and those holding up the specter of President Hillary Clinton to whip them back into line. Fun stuff.