Poor Mitt Romney. Just as he was succeeding in bringing Mike Huckabee down a peg in Iowa, at the cost of a massive blitz of negative television ads, along comes John McCain and catches up with the Mittster in New Hampshire.A new poll in NH has McCain tied with Romney, both at 26%. A new Fox national poll also has McCain statistically tied with Giuliani and Huckabee.
Could it be that New Hampshire Republicans, watching the rest of the field--Mitt and his flip-flops and pandering; Huck and his holier than thou Christian leader schtick; Giuliani and his dubious jugdment on friends and lovers; and plain ol' lazy Fred T.--are starting to remember why they liked McCain in the first place?
The Republicans could do a lot worse than McCain. He regularly beats Hillary in head-to-head poll match-ups because independents view him as, well--independent. And the baggage he carries is that he's occasionally offended the GOP "base" by refusing to pander to them and rejecting some of their sillier notions.
If the Iraq war was still going poorly, it would be a problem for McCain, but if things keep improving, he looks like a genius.
New Hampshire will be close. But if McCain can pull out a win in the Granite State, we'd expect to see a strong surge of support for him elsewhere, as party regulars--understandably queasy at the prospect of a brokered convention--rally around him. They've test driven all the other candidates and now, guess what--Senator McCain doesn't look so bad after all.
Personally, as Democrats wanting to win in November, McCain strikes us as the Republicans' strongest candidate, one we'd rather not face.
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