Polls show that the economy is what the upcoming election will be about.

The only way Iraq will matter is if it continues its slide back towards chaos.

Bad news fr McCain on either issue.

I don't see how anyone can expect an improvement in the economy resulting from government policies under Clinton or Obama. Please enlighten me. I do believe that McCain will stem the tide of uncontrolled spending and federal regulation and this can be a positive for improving the economy.

Considering McCain played a major(corrupt) role in causing the S&L crisis that caused the recession that ended the good Bush presidency...why would anyone think McCain has any economic answers now?

We all can't dump our spouses and remarry rich like McCain did to get out of debt.

Irony indeed if W's recession tubes McCain's long shot presidential bid...or plain ol' revenge.

Dear Mr. Scheie: What's the rush? The election is in November, the nominating convention in September. Why the rush to get on board nownownownow? That's the problem with Jules Crittenden's piece. He makes many good points, but Romney's withdrawal is too fresh, for this Romney supporter to bawl hosannahs to JMcC. Let things shake down a bit. Listen to what McCain has to say. Most importantly, see what he does. Specifically, who is his running mate to be? I'd especially like to know this. Would it change your mind if JMcC offered the veepacy to Lincoln Chafee, the GOP senator who inherited his Rhode Island seat from his old man, until he got canned in 2006. Voted against the war, left the GOP, saying it had left him. What would that do to your opinion of JMcC? Conversely, suppose JMcC offered the veepacy to Rick Santorum, also an ex-Senator on the opposite side of everything from Chafee. Such a decision will give any voter a good sign of how JMcC will act as Prez. Right now we've got the JMcC supporters who want instant allegiance, and the opponents who roar death before dishonor. Both sides are going to have some climbing down to do, or will have a lot of sour regrets later on. Bill Quick is starting a new website that carefully does not say it is a new political party, but a new "conservative force." Already the disaffected are roaring for glory; the Haydn strains are deafening. He might be right. Or in a year it will be deader than Sam Brownback's candidacy.

I think you and Jules'll have better luck letting it sit for a couple of months. To be sure, this idea will work best if accusations of "traitor, turncoat, quisling, backstabber, nevernevernever, etc etc etc." are drowned by silence. That will be difficult in the blogosphere, with its fastfastfasthurryhurryhurryBillQuickBillQuickBillQuicknownownow imperatives.

JMcC and his crew have their work cut out for them. Everyone else: take a vacation. Go fishing. Sip some lemonade. Glide down the river in the canoe. Laugh like hell at the predicament the Democrats are in. Ponder the state of Andrew Sullivan who will have to decide if he wants JMcC and the War Andrew Has Declared Lost or Hillary Clinton this fall. That should be good for a belly laugh.

Sincerely yours,
Gregory Koster

Destroy the dream in order to save it?

To what dream do you refer, Eric? For conservatives, a McCain presidency has never been our dream.

Or do you share Crittenden's view that the viability of the American dream hinges on John McCain's election? Although I'm sure McCain himself would agree -- his contempt for conservatives being outsized only by his ego -- you can't expect sober people to believe that.

Who's being hysterical here? Conservatives who won't vote for John McCain because they think him philosophically and temperamentally unsuited to the presidency? Or conservatives who think his defeat would initiate the apocalypse?

Not only is Crittenden's argument suspect, his approach is too: In sum, "Listen up, you ignorant bitches, as I get you told." In my experience, you cannot win friends and influence people with such forms of address.

I don't think a lot of folks are getting the obvious.
The Republican nominee will be John McCain. Nobody else on the right with a chance is left standing.
He wasn't my first choice,or even my second.But he is it.

The opposition are socialists,whichever the Dems pick.

Not long after Pres.Bush was elected I was lamenting that it seemed that even the R's were all for Big Gov't. It was pointed out to me that that is what it seemed everyone in the country wanted.Illegal immigration was(is?) another one of those types of problems where everyone in gov't thought that the simplest thing seemed to be just to legalize them.Simple,Big Gov't answer,only problem is that no one in the country wanted that. It was the single biggest scream No! that Washington has had the pleasure to hear in a very long time.

The point now is to make John McCain realize that he can not win the general without the supporting the conservative views. Not only that, but that the country needs him to stay on the conservative side.
If he does not hear from the conservatives that he needs to support conservatism,then he will run with Big Gov't ideas,then the Dems win.
And that is not a good thing for this country.
Now is the time to hold his feet to the fire and get him to commit to honoring conservative ideals. If he can not do this conservatives will stay angry(they might anyway!),but more importantly moderates and independents will see no difference,and won't see any reason to vote for the more conservative candidate. And if they can not see why that is a good thing,they will go for the feel good promises of the left.
John McCain has a chance to save this country from the socialism of the left. But not if he tries to run from the emptiness of the center.

I love how in all these pieces, it is the base that needs to come around, not McCain. It just must be our fault that our candidate hates us, right?