PICK UP YOUR MONEY AND PACK UP YOUR TENT, YOU AIN"T GON' NOWHERE. As another piece of evidence for the Schmitt/Plumer/Marshall thesis that John McCain's presidential campaign is stillborn, I see that in a poll of major right-wing bloggers McCain has a remarkably high "least desirable" ranking, barely less than Republican Lieberman Chuck Hagel and considerably higher than the widely-disliked no-hoper George Pataki. Obviously, this means less than his rejection by James Dobson, but it's suggestive of the basic underlying dynamic: Saint McCain's relentless pandering to cultural reactionaries and shilling for a catastrophic and unpopular war has destroyed his standing among independents without helping his standing with the base. (And although I'm much less convinced by Mark's prediction that Gingrich will be the nominee, I should note that he did actually garner first place in the "most desirable" survey.) I wonder what a similar poll of liberal bloggers would show?
--Scott Lemieux
