The Maverick

John McCain's announcement that he is running for President was treated by the Left as something everyone already knew. Radar reports that McCain did not run the announcement by his staff first.

"They're imploding—he had a game plan that had him announcing much later in the year," one top Republican aide tells Radar, adding that the campaign is "in serious trouble ... Romney's plan and Rudy's jump in the polls caused him to scrap his plans completely. When you do that, and you're not prepared for it, the staff goes crazy. Some of his coordinators in different states were pulling their hair out!"

None of this would matter to McCain's staff if he was killing opponents in the polls. He is not. McCain's numbers are sinking. McCain has the smell of potential loser on him.

The Maverick latched onto George W. Bush. He campaigned for a man who swiftboated him in South Carolina. McCain has backed every bad foreign policy idea Bush's crew of neocons came up with. The American public doesn't want anything to do with anyone tainted by Bush.

Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani have taken more liberal positions than many Democrats. Both are now courting the Christian Right. Reasonable people see though the insincerity. Including many conservatives. The Right is pragmatic enough to know they need a viable candidate in 2008. Principle matter less than winning.

McCain is the Republican Party's version of Joe Biden. Brash talking and quotable, but will never serve in the White House. If by some miracle McCain creeps back up in the polls; he will be swiftboated again. He has too tin of a political ear to see it coming. That alone proves he is not smart enough to be President.