Monday, January 14, 2008

A Pause That Refreshes?   [Rich Lowry]

Democrats hit "pause" on Obama in New Hampshire; will Republicans do the same to McCain? Or will he sweep to a commanding position for the nomination in the space of about a week and a half of voting (from NH to Michigan to SC)? It's amazing that he could be so close to the nomination without anyone ever bringing up in the debates or in an ad how he bitterly stomped off from his party after losing to Bush in 2000 and basically joined forces with Senate Democrats for a couple of years. Is this so uninteresting to Republican voters that it doesn't even deserve to be raised by another candidate? (Jonathan Martin noted this other day, prompted by Mark's piece here.)

If Republicans do want to pause, the place to do is in Michigan tomorrow, because if he wins there, he could get a boost in SC, and then he looks hard to stop. Of course, even if Republicans do want to pause in Michigan, Democrats and independents can over-rule them by giving McCain his margin for victory. 

The thing is, a pause is very risky for McCain. A few weeks ago I said that Romney's campaign was on a knife's edge between the nomination and oblivion. The wonderful—and scary—thing for McCain is that his campaign is now in exactly the same spot. Two wins this week and he'll be far-and-away the frontrunner; two losses and his campaign might head toward the abyss.

01/14 04:34 PMShare