McCain in Freefall

I am not sure who the Republican nominee for 08 is going to be, but it is becoming clear that it will not be John McCain. For a long time I thought McCain was going to win almost by default, because the conservatives would not buy Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani. However after a couple of really bad months for him the McCain 08 campaign appears to be in complete freefall mode. His campaign manager and chief political strategist have both just resigned. This is on top of having to fire staff and taking stands on Iraq and immigration that managed to anger both moderates and conservatives. The problems may have started by speaking at Liberty University because the conservatives saw it as a ploy to woo them and it angered the moderates who liked the McCain that spoke against the religious right. The McCain Straight Talk Express is short on ideas, cash, and apparently time. He has faltered badly and now the question can he regain his traction. I think it is possible for McCain to recover, but it does appear to be an easy path for him. He has tied his reputation to Bush’s Iraq War and the news from there does not appear to be changing any time soon. The latest news is that the new Iraqi government has met none of the benchmarks set up before the surge and the news that will come out in September will not be good. He tied his name to an immigration bill that is DOA and only managed to make the conservatives he was courting furious. The McCain bills for immigration and campaign finance might be seen as trying to be bipartisan in some circles, but to the mostly conservative primary voters is only seen as a sell out and reasons not to trust him. As far as the other people running Fred Thompson seems to be the conservative darling du jour and to make matters worse Romney and Giuliani are hanging in there. McCain is not out yet but he needs some good news really, really soon.