McCain can sell the principle and grit thing to lots of folks in the heartland, but it won't play with the real bible thumpers. They want somebody who agrees with them, that we don't need a foreign policy because we ought to be stopping abortion and teaching creationism in the public schools, not messing around with other governments. The family farmers in Iowa would vote for the old McCain, but there are barely enough family farmers left in Iowa to have an impact in Iowa, and they'd have little impact nationally.

McCain is screwed because he deviated from what people saw as his "true self." The voters who liked him in the past liked him even though they disagreed with him. In fact, they liked him because he disagreed with them and told them so in an honest way, and because they thought it was principled disagreement. Now they see him making big efforts to avoid disagreements with the president on Iraq and immigration. People liked McCain because he criticized his president and his party when they went the wrong direction. Now that the president is going the wrong way on two very big issues, McCain agrees with him. McCain is trying to sell this on the premise that he's sticking to his principles, but people aren't buying it because he can't find a reason to squabble with the president anymore. Voters could buy the principle and grit stuff if McCain would get up in the president's face on a weekly basis, but he appears to be Bush's Best Buddy all of a sudden and that makes people suspect he's abandoned his scruples.

Maybe that would save the McCain campaign -- fight with the president. Go after him on stem cell funding, or education, or corruption in government, or something. It's probably too late, but it would be fun to watch.