McCain is circling the bowl

Dick Morris writes John McCain's first political eulogy (except for the ones I've been writing since I started this blog):

The John McCain candidacy, launched amid much hope, fanfare, and high expectations, may be dying before our eyes.

Even worse, it may go out with a whimper instead of a bang.
It may not end in an Armageddon style primary defeat, but just dry up from lack of support, money, or interest.

Throughout all of 2006, McCain sat atop the polls right next to Rudy Giuliani. In the Fox News survey of December, 2006, he was getting 27 percent of the Republican primary vote to Rudy's 31 percent. But, after Giuliani announced that he was running, the Arizona senator fell to 24 percent while Rudy soared into the stratosphere at 41 percent of the primary voters. But even when McCain was polling well, he wasn't raising the money he needs for this campaign.

In the last quarter of 2006, during a time when he was tied for front-runner status in the GOP and doing well in general election matchups against likely Democratic rivals like Hillary Clinton, he raised only $1.7 million according to his filing with the Federal Elections Commission.

Even worse, he had less than $500,000 on hand, pocket change in a presidential race and barely adequate for a run for Congress.

You can read the rest if you want, but all it proves is that Morris still doesn't get it. Here's why:

Fundamentally, he failed to heed the Shakespeare's admonition "to thine own self be true." The John McCain of the 2000 campaign is nowhere in evidence in 2007.

Instead of challenging the party establishment, he pathetically waits at its door, hoping to be invited. Where he used to challenge the religious right, he now panders to them. Once he led the battle against big tobacco, for corporate governance reform, in favor of campaign financing changes, and in support of action against global warming.

This is why he lost the nomination to George W Bush and why Republicans still hate him. This is why he is never going to be the president. If Rudy had not announced McCain might still be in the lead over Romney, but that would only be because Republicans would be thinking that McCain might stand a better chance of beating Hillary than Romney.

This is why liberal Rudy is doing so well in the polls among Republicans. We think he can beat Hillary and we don't disagree with everything he stands for. Most Republicans know that if you don't choose the lesser evil you will wind up with the greater evil, as proven by the disastrous Carter Administration. Yes Gerald Ford was a RINO, but he would have been far less harmful to the nation than Jimmah.

There is still time for a real conservative to step up and take Rudy's place, but that time grows short.