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Political Roundup John LeBoutillier Much has happened over the past few days relating to the current political scene and the 2008 race: 1) John McCain's final political meltdown has begun. His greatest cheerleaders — the fawning national news media — have started pulling away from their former darling. His moribund "Meet the Press" appearance a week ago, coupled with his hard-line stance on the Iraq troop surge, have finally convinced his media supporters that he is a certain 2008 loser. And then came a new LA Times poll showing that his lone support for the troop surge was making him less popular and less likely to win an election. So you will now see a cooling by his once-strongest constituents: these so-called mainstream media types who for six years have been in love with McCain. 2) The new media darling is suddenly Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska who has started to lead the charge against Bush's surge. He is all the talk in D.C. these days — and his once close friendship with McCain is certainly kaput. But whether Hagel can get the juice to run for president and get anywhere is still undetermined. 3) The Bush meltdown is a stunning development even among the GOP. Every day more and more conservatives jump ship. At the rate we are going, Bush will be totally isolated within weeks. Few Republicans will risk their careers defending him. Indeed, Laura and Barney may be his only supporters before long. 4) 2008: the landscape is changing by the minute. Iraq has become such an albatross for the Republicans that it is not quite possible that no Republican can win the White House in 2008. That may be Bush's ultimate legacy. Iraq is dominating everything. It is why the Democrats won the 2006 congressional elections. It is masking good things that the GOP would normally campaign on in 2008: a robust economy and no domestic attacks since 9/11. But Iraq has so eroded those inherent GOP strengths that we have little to campaign on. The only Republican who might be able to win in 2008 is one who rejects Bush; however that Republican might have trouble winning the GOP nomination. 5) Hillary is off and running in Iowa and goes to New Hampshire next weekend. The media love her; they are all lefties who fawn over this "first woman president" angle. Her crowds ask softball questions; you have to wonder if, like Bush's phony town hall forums, the crowds here are also pre-screened to ensure easy and supportive questions. Story Continues Below
6) The next big event will be Obama's next trip to Iowa, to compare it to Hillary's in terms of crowd size and enthusiasm levels. 7) Rudy Giuliani went to New Hampshire this weekend and did well. He still won't totally commit to the campaign even though he leads in the polls. But he is a bit of a strange fellow; he has skeletons — Kerik, sleazy associates, womanizing — and perhaps he is afraid of their emergence. Or maybe he doesn't want to give up the enormous money he is making on the lecture circuit right now. But he is no dummy; he must see McCain's demise as a good sign for him. The big question remains: Can a total social liberal like Rudy really get nominated by the Republican Party? 8) Other candidates: new ones appear every minute. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had a nice appearance on "Meet the Press" and announced he is running. But none of these guys, on either side, seem to get much attention, or have much appeal. Rep. Duncan Hunter, with whom I was elected in 1980, is a good man. He has zilch chance because he is just does not have that certain charisma that you need these days. None of the Republicans has it — except maybe Rudy. But Rudy has many problems, more than any of us know. 9) We have never had such an early campaign start. The entire 2008 primary/caucus system now means 2007 is when all the campaigning happens. This means that D.C. is already frozen in partisan gridlock. And it means that the ongoing activities in Iraq will dictate the course of our politics for the foreseeable future. 10) The Democrats are headed for something they wanted to avoid: heavy pressure to cut off funds for the war in Iraq. The Democratic base is pushing for this, and in a few weeks when the Bush White House requests more money, rumored to be another $100 billion for Iraq, the pressure to stop the war will intensify. Watch for this as it will alter the 2008 race yet again. 11) Impeachment is, as of today, not something that the Democratic leadership even wants to hear mentioned. But you will hear more calls for it as Iraq deteriorates. Conclusion: there is an anger and a sourness building rapidly across our country. And a fear that our wonderful nation is in deep, deep trouble. It will be against that backdrop that all politics is now conducted. Editor's note:
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