Hardly Irrelevant, McCain stays at the Center of the Storm

The media this week has been dancing a jig over what they describe as the implosion of John McCain's bid for president. Headlines read "Immigration Makes Romney, Breaks McCain", "Polarized McCain Near Irrelevancy", and "Is It Adios, Amigo for McCain?".

Irrelevancy?

For taking a position when others are like greased pigs in a pool, McCain has been cast to the ash heap of political campaigns by the yellowest of journalists. The insatiable desire for defeat, to sell newspapers, is shocking. And yet, there is not much in the way of defeat for McCain when it comes to the polls.

Recent polls show a spike in support for Romney, who is beginning to buy airtime in Iowa and New Hampshire. However, in the national head-t0-head polls, McCain still beats out Hillary Clinton while Romney cannot.

From Zogby:

"The poll shows that U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton is the choice of likely Democratic Primary voters, beating out fellow senator Barack Obama. But the twist is, Obama would beat all Republicans in a race for the presidency, but Clinton would be defeated by both John McCain of Arizona and Rudy Giuliani of New York City, but would win against Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Fred Thompson of Tennessee, the survey shows." (Zogby, 5/25/07)

Romney's ad blitz and chameleon act might be working with some, but not everyone.

And even when it comes to the issue of immigration, while the media paints a defeated McCain, the polls show something different:

"The New York Times – CBS poll said that while most Americans favored eventual eligibility for citizenship for illegal immigrants, a similar majority also said illegals should only be eligible for citizenship after those who immigrated legally. The problem with the NYT-CBS poll, however, is that the data are not split by party. Given the hugely negative reaction to the Senate bill among conservatives, there seems to be no solace for McCain in the NYT-CBS results." (Michelle Oddis, Human Events, 5/25/07)

Conservatives flat out do not support anything but an expensive deportation of illegals, breaking up families and creating more problems of "reillegal" immigration in the future. Most moderate Americans support some sort of action. Yet Congress, whose approval rating is now as low as the President's, supports inaction over any action. Yet another year will pass without any key immigration reform. This topic has been a presidential election season issue for two cycles now, and seems to be for a third.

McCain shows, that by working with Ted Kennedy, he can not only be his own man, but work toward bipartisanship and compromise--something that has been forgotten on Capitol Hill. Hardly irrelevant, McCain seems to gravitate toward the middle of every debate, and not be cast into obscurity every time he takes a position.

The continued assault on McCain, and media outlets who savor defeat for sales' sake, are quick to judge. Should McCain get a few more whiffs that the base is unwilling to work for change, and the moderates of America are crying for a champion, the prospects of an independent McCain bid for the White House grow daily (a prospect that will, like 1992 and 1996, doom the Republican candidate, and propel another Clinton into the White House)