Sep 4th, 2008 · Sen. John McCain will officially become the Republican nominee Thursday, despite his at times rocky relationship with the party. Though McCain has adopted a more conservative game plan of late, he's still willing to call an audible now and then.
Sep 2nd, 2008 · Hurricane Gustav sent Gulf Coast residents, as well as the presidential candidates, scrambling this week. John McCain called an audible, and the first day of the GOP convention was muted and largely procedural. Democrat Barack Obama also has altered his course, as well as his tone.
Dec 17th, 2007 · So now we all know why John McCain didn't get discouraged when his presidential campaign came crashing down around him last summer. It turns out the fourth-term senator and former POW had a prescient notion about the future direction of the 2008 contest. Looking around him on the national stage, McCain could not discern a face with a future on Mount Rushmore. So he decided to stick around and give people a chance to come around. And come around some have. As the holidays approach, McCain has found gift after gift at his doorstep. First it was the endorsement of the Manchester Union-Leader, the torchbearer for "Live Free or Die" politics in New Hampshire for generations. Never known for favoring anti-establishment types, the Union Leader still endorsed the Arizonan in a salute to his character and perseverance. Then came The Boston Globe, widely read throughout Red Sox nation, and the Portsmouth Herald, another audible voice in the state that matters most to McCain. The Arizonan also won the backing of the Des Moines Register, the largest paper in Iowa, home of the first caucuses on January 3. This may be the least of his converts, as he has far less invested in Iowa than he has in New Hampshire, and the Register probably will not move many Republicans his way. Back in New Hampshire, however, McCain completed his sudden surge of support by rolling out his Senate colleague Joe Lieberman, the former Democrat who ran as an independent last year after his party denied him renomination. McCain came to Connecticut to stump for Lieberman in 2006, helping him corral the majority of Republican votes that sent him back to Washington. Taken together, all these salutes should help McCain challenge Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, for first place in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first primary on January 8. Each of the endorsements speaks to a different slice of the primary electorate, from conservative Republicans to moderate independents, an especially crucial slice for McCain. The timing of all this good news is extra helpful to McCain, who has been battling former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for second behind Romney. Giuliani has shown signs of easing up in New Hampshire (as he long ago did in Iowa) so as to concentrate on his firewall state of Florida, which votes three weeks later. That means McCain, if he wins New Hampshire, could be in position to contest later states despite his near-total dependence on free media. There was always a case to be made that McCain would return to the front ranks before the nominee was finally chosen. His performances in the debates have featured a quiet dignity and self-respect all too rare in recent presidential politics. The other candidates often defer to him or even praise him, seeking to attach themselves to his reputation for decency, his war hero status and aura of independence. A late arriving viewer might well wonder why McCain has been so out of it through the past six months. Indeed, he began 2007 as a top tier contender. As the runner-up in 2000 he put aside his disappointment and campaigned hard for Bush. He did it again in 2004. So by the usual Republican protocol, he had a right to say 2008 was his turn. He remained a favorite of the news media, as he had been since his days on the stump for other GOP presidential candidates in the mid-1990s. He seemed the one true conservative who might best draw Democratic and independent votes away from Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. It was a strong case, but it quickly fell apart. McCain turned 70 and looked less than robust. He was on the wrong side of the polls on the two most salient issues of the year -- Iraq and immigration. His steadfast support of President Bush on both put him at odds with most voters regardless of party. Moreover, his new willingness to make nice with religious conservatives and others he had fought with in 2000 was widely viewed as pandering -- even as his old adversaries refused to be won over. By late spring, severe problems emerged within his operation: too much squabbling and spending and far too little fundraising. When it became known that McCain could barely meet his campaign payroll in the summer months, his candidacy appeared all but moribund. As a consequence, a chastened McCain returned to the role of insurgent that had suited him best. And gradually, the climate has become more clement. The improved security picture in Iraq reduced the salience of that issue, and the death of the president's immigration bill reduced some of the tension on that front. But most important to McCain's comeback has been the failure of his rivals to fill the void. Giuliani, Romney, former Senator Fred Thompson and now Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, have all auditioned for frontrunner without nailing the role. And that's why close observers of the race have turned their eyes once again on the man who began the year with such high hopes. He may not be the one at the 2008 convention, but he will be a force to reckon with before the process is over. We should never have counted him out.
Nov 18th, 2006 · You don't have to know how to play the guitar to rock out. Richard Helmer and a team of engineers at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization have created an air-guitar that actually produces music.