Though Though Mike Huckabee is the surprise candidate of the 2008 Republican presidential contest, John McCain is the real wild card. Hoping to use Huckabee as the tip of his spear, McCain came to Des Moines last night for one last stab in Mitt Romney's back. At an evening press conference in his Urbandale (suburban Des Moines) headquarters last night, McCain again went after the former Massachusetts governor, who McCain needs to finish weakly, ideally second, and stumble into New Hampshire bruised and battered enough for McCain to catch him there. McCain is using foreign policy credentials as a cudgel to batter Romney as unready to lead the party; in this sense, McCain is playing a “ready to lead from day one” card similar to that used by Hillary Clinton to criticize Barack Obama. Just yesterday, the McCain camp released a new foreign policy-themed ad and accompanying statement from Senate colleague and longtime supporter Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. His ad mocks Romney for essentially arguing that foreign policy experience is always just a phone call away to an expert over at the State Department. It’s a tough, stinging critique. I think McCain will end up being a big story here, and though he will finish third in a literal sense, he may get into the high teens and maybe even crack 20 percent in his share of the vote, especially if Fred Thompson craters. Even if Romney wins, especially if narrowly, he’s already wounded. And surely if Romney finishes second, then that magnifies the McCain “victory” here. --Tom Schaller
