McCain's Night

On immigration, he stood his ground. On the war, he's sadly wrong, I think. But I don't doubt his good will and conviction. He's not a saint and he's made compromises (I can't forgive him for giving Bush the power to torture). But in the interaction above, he directly confronted and addressed the pain and tragedy of this bungled war in a way the president has not and cannot. And McCain's view that withdrawal will be extremely dangerous must absolutely be put on the table. The question of whether we withdraw from the Jihadist trap will soon become a question of how we do it. I don't see how Darfur liberals can be so blithely indifferent to a looming genocide in Iraq that we have precipitated, while urging intervening to mitigate one elsewhere. McCain's conviction will rightly put that debate front and center. Giuliani earned some integrity points for sticking up for cultural pluralism and against the impulse to bring the healthcare industry under more government control. But his crudeness in foreign policy is too hotheaded, in my judgment, for these perilous times. So: McCain's night from my perspective, even though he may be losing the base. Best to go down fighting, Senator.