An interview with Senator McCain from the New York Times magazine.  Kind of interesting.  Also, a piece from today's Washington Post looking at some of his stops in New Hampshire, a state he absolutely must win (like in 2000) to have any prayer whatsoever of contending. 

Despite the fact that much of the base despises McCain, I still find him admirable.  He is a true American hero who has made some bad decisions politically (McCain-Feingold being atrocious and the immigration bill not thought out well), but he says what he believes.  He was right years ago about the need for more troops in Iraq and I think if the President and Rumsfeld had listened, there is a chance Iraq would be much better off.   McCain is always staunch on military issues and really articulates well the need to battle Islamist terrorism.  I think he is more compelling on this issue than anyone else thus far in the race on the GOP side, even Rudy. 

All that said, when you make a cornerstone of your career poking at your base and then expecting them to embrace you at crunch time, you can’t expect good things.  Sen. McCain should go down as a great man whose flaws led to his failure to capture the nomination.  Admiration and respect can only take one so far, at some point, you have to deliver on what you constituency expects, he hasn’t on some big things and that is why there is still a vacuum in the race that I think it likely to be filled by Fred Thompson.