Running Out of Time

They have been putting it off, procrastinating and hoping the day would never come, but establishment Republicans may soon have to make their peace with John McCain. If they don’t want to, and they surely don’t have to, they must choose to embrace Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani — immediately. McCain’s path to the nomination is not assured, he has little momentum and his support isn’t exactly firm. Indeed, he remains so toxic his own allies — like close friend Nancy Reagan and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, who endorsed him in 2000 but this time stayed neutral — refuse to rally around him even now. Yet as long as his rivals are splitting opposition support, McCain’s shaky, default coalition is likely to attract a majority in the coming contests. In the absence of adequate enthusiasm for Rudy or Romney or even Mike Huckabee, a few traditional Republicans could join McCain’s base of military veterans, limited-government conservatives, independents and moderates to put him over the top.

What does the establishment plan to do? I know no one cares what former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) says, no matter how many times he uses McCain to get back on television. But do influential Republicans with real followings like George Will and Rush Limbaugh think their continuous hot blast of McCain criticism, now that he has won two primaries, is going to help a crippled party recover in time to keep the White House in November? One thing is certain: It isn’t likely to change McCain in time.

In the GOP field, McCain is now the unrivaled national security candidate in the first open election without an incumbent since terrorism forever altered American politics. He is the most experienced candidate in the field in foreign policy and domestic policy. He has the strongest shot at beating Hillary Clinton in a general election. And for the first time, he is a winner. Since McCain’s Saturday victory, Robert Novak has annointed him the likely nominee (for the second time) and declared he made the transition from 2000 maverick to 2008 establishmentarian. Novak also noted the “older, wiser McCain is more careful and less combative.”

That matters little to McCain’s detractors, as we know. But they are running out of time to knock him off. Why aren’t they helping Giuliani or Romney? Could it be that the only thing worse than McCain are the other choices?

I think we will know the answer to that question within a few days.

***
WHERE ARE YOUR QUESTIONS ABOUT FLORIDA AND SOUTH CAROLINA AND THAT REVOLTING DEMOCRATIC DEBATE LAST NIGHT? Join us for our next segment of ASK A.B., now scheduled for this Thursday, Jan. 24. To take part in my weekly video Q & A please send questions to askab@digital-staging.thehill.com.