Bizarro Candidate

FACT: John McCain was at one point the front-running establishment candidate for President on the Republican side.

FACT: Once McCain took a strong stance for the surge in Iraq, his support cratered among independents and his electability was questioned as his financial support began to dry up.

FACT: Facing a campaign in tatters and his lifelong dream of the Presidency on the rocks, McCain has decided to revive his candidacy by... you guessed it...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a high-profile effort next week to convince Americans that the Iraq war is winnable, embracing the unpopular conflict with renewed vigor as he attempts to reignite his stalling bid for the presidency.

With the Virginia Military Institute as a backdrop, McCain plans to argue in a speech on Wednesday that victory in Iraq is essential to American security and that President Bush's war machine is finally getting on track after four years, aides and advisers said.

McCain's rosy assessment of safety on Iraq's streets after his recent visit to a Baghdad marketplace was mocked by many, prompting him to tell a television reporter that he "misspoke" and now regrets the comments. But, in the interview to be broadcast tomorrow, the senator sticks by his defense of the overall war effort, predicting that failure in Iraq would be "catastrophic."

... doing exactly the thing that got him in trouble in the first place!

People tend to forget that the only reason McCain had any chance of winning in 2000 was because of his success in open primaries that allowed independents to vote. Those independents appreciated McCain's perceived "maverick" streak and the fact that he wasn't like the other monolithic Republicans. Now McCain is seeking the nomination by alienating those independents with his unflagging support for this failed war. I don't know what's stupider, the fact that he's charging headlong into the disaster he created, or the fact that this gambit actually has a shot at winning over the GOP (although he's ensured his defeat in the general, with the loss of independent support).

I tend to agree with Frank Rich that not only does this end John McCain's career, but may hasten the end of the war (behind the wall, here's a taste).

It can’t be lost on those dwindling die-hards, particularly those on the 2008 ballot, that if defending the indefensible can reduce even a politician of Mr. McCain’s heroic stature to that of Dukakis-in-the-tank, they have nowhere to go but down. They’ll cut and run soon enough. For starters, just watch as Mr. McCain’s G.O.P. presidential rivals add more caveats to their support for the administration’s Iraq policy [...]

The center will not hold, no matter what happens in the Washington standoff over war funding. Surely no one understands better than Mr. McCain that American lives are being wasted in the war’s escalation. That is what he said on David Letterman’s show in an unguarded moment some five weeks ago — though he recanted the word wasted after taking flak the morning after.

Like his Letterman gaffe, Mr. McCain’s ludicrous market stunt was at least in the tradition of his old brand of straight talk, in that it revealed the truth, however unintentionally. But many more have watched the constantly recycled and ridiculed spectacle of his "safe" walk in Baghdad than heard him on a late-night talk show. This incident has the staying power of the Howard Dean scream. Should it speed America’s disengagement from Iraq, what looks today like John McCain’s farcical act of political suicide may some day loom large as a patriot’s final act of sacrifice for his country.

I guess I should be thanking McCain, but I can't help but pity him. It'll get worse when his 60 Minutes profile airs tomorrow. I think the best words on this subject could be Jim Henley's:

McCain added, “My campaign is essentially over at this point, and it’s time to prepare for life beyond the hustings. If I’m vociferous enough about Iraq and kiss the right asses, my planned blog could debut in at least the Mortal Humans section of the blogosphere ecosystem. That means some serious blogads money, baby. It worked for Michelle Malkin!”