Does McCain’s support of the Iraq war really account for his “cratering” ranking among Republican primary voters? May I suggest that another “I” issue played a more significant role.
The timing is on Mickey’s side — the politics and talking points are on Arianna’s.
UPDATE: Similar thoughts from TigerHawk:
Now, I am not an accomplished student of presidential politics, but it has literally never crossed my mind that John McCain’s campaign for the Republican nomination has suffered among Republican activists because of his steadfastness on Iraq. I assumed that the two big problems were his amnesty-before-border security position on immigration and sheer mismanagement (the second of which Huffington tosses in as a “bonus” reason). Since Huffington is an accomplished student of politics and we know that Republican donors and primary voters do not read what she writes, either I am wrong or Huffington is disingenuously trying to push mainstream journalists — who do read what she writes — to ask the question, “did John McCain implode because of his support for Iraq?”
Indeed. Some interesting stuff in the comments.