I listened with an open mind to Republican Senator John McCain in this CQ radio interview with McCain from today. h/t Instapundit. Not a big fan of his Presidential aspirations while admiring his long service to America, I heard nothing to even hint at a reason to consider supporting him, as opposed to his already well-known solid record on Iraq. If anything, he may have hurt himself with the Republican base he so desperately needs to engage.
In what was mostly a friendly but uninformative conversation around issues McCain obviously wanted to discuss, the filibuster, the Iraq War, etc, the word immigration came up just once. And McCain's response, "I know when I'm right," is not likely to win him any warm fuzzies from Republicans and Independents who don't have confidence in our government to police the border prior to coming out with any possible amnesty plan.
The only campaign strategy McCain mentioned was waiting until September when non-political junkies might start to become engaged. That may be true. But without much core support from a base he very much needs, it's unclear how he intends to get around his issues with conservatives, or if he ever really plans on genuinely reaching out to them at all.
McCain had a chance to speak directly to the heart of the grass roots Right-side base by engaging the blogosphere and perhaps mitigate some of the serious concerns they have with him due to McCain-Feinberg and Immigration. The topics never came up in any substantive way which, for me, made the interview a waste of time as far as shopping for a candidate to support for President in 2008.
McCain insists he wants to be judged by history and stand on principle and those are admirable goals. Unfortunately, as apart from Iraq, his key positions differ so significantly from a broad swath of the American electorate, it's likely McCain will be remembered as a noble war veteran and a Senator, not a President of the United States.
Given his admirable and capable support for our effort in Iraq, I'd actually prefer to see him apply himself to that full-time, as opposed to having it get watered down in what appears to be a futile effort to become the next President of the United States.
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