Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Why I can't agree completely with J-Pod either   [Mark Steyn]

If McCain wins tonight, Mitt can hang in as the Anyone-But-Mac guy. But it would seem clear that, for a significant number of GOP voters, McCain's "narrative" outpunches his record on amnesty and everything else. If you can't get out the truth about him in the early single-state primaries, you aren't going to be able to do it on Super-Duper Tuesday.

The only reason to stay in would be if McCain does something to self-destruct. He tends to get a bit careless, as in 2000, when he attacked "the religious right". If he were to do something similar on Pre-Super-Duper Monday, Mitt might have a shot at the south. But, absent that, I think we'd be looking at a run of respectable second-place finishes. I think McCain is a weak frontrunner, but a weak frontrunner with high name recognition versus a weak challenger with less name recognition can do well enough to win the nomination.

01/29 08:46 PMShare