John McCain

McCain's name has been looming large in the media for a while. He's the rock star of the Senate, with "supporters" on both sides of the aisle. See Mark Coffey's candidate profile of John McCain at Decision '08 for some excellent right-leaning coverage.

MSNBC's Howard Fineman has an interesting article about McCain's 2008 prospects, and it says what I've thought all along. Though McCain would likely be the Republican Party's strongest candidate in a wide-open race against any Democrat (there's certainly a case to be made for Giuliani in this capacity as well), there's some real doubt as to whether he could bring the Dobsonite base around to his side enough to win the nomination. If you listen to the right-wing blogs, McCain is about as likely to get the Republican nomination as Hillary Clinton is.

Johan suggested to me last night that he believed McCain had been made promises in return for his stanch support of Bush in 2004. I don't find that terribly hard to believe, but he certainly wouldn't be Rove's go-to guy. What's more likely, I think, is that McCain used the election to jockey himself into position, rather than being explicitly promised support by the current Administration. He knows how to work the media, and he's been making a name for himself among non-religious-right Republicans and moderate-to-conservative Democrats.

This one'll certainly bear watching.

Fargus...