McCain Forecloses Early
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: March 29, 2008
I don’t see how anybody could deny that John McCain is a straight-talker. The country is terrified of economic collapse and he’s been sounding like Mr. Potter, the banker in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” You can’t get more forthright than that.
McCain, by the way, is going to be the Republican presidential nominee. Really. While you were watching Hillary and Barack in the Campaign That Never Ends, the Republicans picked him.
How did this happen so fast? We haven’t even heard from Pennsylvania!
The Republicans, with their unfair but very, very efficient winner-take-all primaries, closed the deal while the Democrats were still trying to count the votes in Texas. (Results are due any minute!) Now, the Democrats are terrified that McCain will have months and months to raise money and ingratiate himself with the American people while their candidates are spending every cent they can get their hands on to make each other less popular. On Friday, Senator Patrick Leahy called on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race because McCain was getting a “free ride” while Democrats squabble.
That felt like an overestimation. Not that McCain hasn’t scored some points on the days that he wasn’t getting Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq mixed up. Witness the speed and dexterity with which he’s been distancing himself from the White House. The only withdrawal McCain supports began when he said he was eager to have Bush campaign for him whenever “it fits into his busy schedule,” making it clear that the busyness of said schedule was going to be beyond comprehension.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/opinion/29collins.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin