Noonan on McCain

Peggy Noonan, one of Reagan's head speechwriters, has some interesting comments on John McCain's presidential bid -- comments that I think are generally pretty accurate. I've clipped what I think are the most interesting parts below, but you can check out the full article at http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110009731.

I think that what she has to say about McCain and his relationship with the Christian Conservative leaders is dead on. In 2000, GWB blindsided him by playing to the Religious Right. This time, McCain is trying to gain their support and prove that he's good enough for them, but most of them are becoming more aware of their own tired schtik, and it's not really working out so well. And so, McCain, trying to play by GWB's playbook (which itself is getting more and more outdated), will continue to falter and stumble until he is defeated.

clipped from www.opinionjournal.com

In 2000 he felt he could take on Christian conservative leaders in the South. Bad timing. In 2000 they were at the peak of their 20 years of power. Now their followers are tired and questioning after a generation of political activism. And many leaders seem compromised--dinged after all that time in the air. Mr. McCain could rebuke them now and thrive. Instead he decided to attempt to embrace them.

nd there is Iraq. The war was generally popular from 2002 through roughly 2006, and Mr. McCain won broad credit from conservatives for standing with the president. But now that support, heightened by the surge debate, is costing him, not only with the general public but in a subtle way, I think, with Republicans. Republicans don't abandon a Republican president in time of war, and they have a special relationship with this president, a simple admiration for who he is. At the same time, they don't precisely want another W. for president, another man who seems just as convinced, stubborn