Feel The Johnmentum

McCain's back, according to everyone, if by "everyone" you mean the Beltway media (he'd win a cocktail party straw poll with ease). If you mean actual activists and supporters that might help him get votes, McCain, um, isn't back.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox plans to resign as John McCain's state campaign chairman, according to two top Republicans who asked not to be identified because Cox has not yet spoken with McCain in person.

Cox thinks the Arizona senator would make a good president, but his campaign isn't doing what it needs to win Michigan, the two Republicans said Monday. State Republicans are set to choose their presidential favorites in a Jan. 15 primary.

McCain won Michigan's 2000 Republican presidential primary. But polls have shown Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney now are more popular in the state, and Fred Thompson is getting the same amount of support as McCain.

Cox is almost certainly the GOP nominee for governor in Michigan, so having him take a powder is a pretty big deal. The standard bearer in the state wants to associate with a winner. In other words, not McCain. This is pretty much a two-horse race now between Romney and Giuliani - I don't think Fred Thompson's first week was very solid, and he's lurking back with Huckabee.