The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes says John McCain's future as a presidential candidate "looks brighter than it has in months."
Senator John McCain's speech last week on winning in Iraq earned high marks, at least from conservatives. One result was an immediate fourfold increase in McCain's online fundraising, though he'd made no special appeal. Another was that his once close ties to the mainstream media continued to fray, which may improve his standing among conservatives. And at the same time his chief opponents for the Republican presidential nomination hit bumps in the road: Rudy Giuliani over his support for taxpayer-funded abortions, Mitt Romney because of his seemingly innocent but exaggerated claim to have been a lifelong hunter.
Even taken together, these haven't created a McCain moment in the Republican campaign. But they do mark the end of the downward drift of his candidacy and improve his prospects of gaining the support of conservatives--the two things McCain needed most.
Barnes notes a poll in February by Public Opinion Strategies that asked respondents if they "support finishing the job in Iraq, that is, keeping the troops there until the Iraqi government can maintain control and provide security for its people," which found that the American people favor that strategy - rather than the Democrat's defeatist call for withdrawal - by 57 percent to 41 percent.
McCain's declaration that he would rather lose his campaign than have America lose the war boosted his chances for winning his campaign - and America's chances for winning the war.
When all you've got left is courage, run on that.
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