Of the three front runners for the GOP (OK, four front runners for you Ron Paul fans), I'm glad McCain seems to have taken it. I disagreed with many of Ron Paul's positions; I think Romney is a fake, sleazy car salesman shyster; and I think Huckabee is too much in the pocket of the religions right (although he has the best personality of them all --- good sense of humor, and a nice easy manner about him).

McCain is a decent moderate republican. He is also a man of integrity. I don't agree with some of his policies, but for me his integrity is probably more important than his policies. He's honest, and after 8 years of lies and corruption, honesty counts for something.

On the war in Iraq, he staked out one of the two positions I supported when we were floundering for the last five years. My feeling was that we either had to go all out and put everything we had in it, or just get the hell out. Fight or filght, but don't just stand there like a deer in the headlights and get flattened the way we were. His policy has turned the tide, and I just wish we had done it 5 years ago. FIVE FREAKIN' YEARS! If it works out that the strategy has succeeded by the time the election rolls around, that may put him over the top.

His biggest challenges are going to be motivating and uniting his party, his boring style, and his age.

A good proportion of Republicans do not consider McCain to be a good Republican. They don't think he is a true conservative. He's going to have trouble convincing the social/religious conservatives. If he can't unite and motivate the party he's going to have huge trouble because the Democrats are highly motivated. Something like 70% of Democrats would be happy with either candidate, and the Democratic turnouts in the primaries have been almost twice as high as the GOP. It points to a united and moitvated Democratic party.

He has a boring and stilted style. If he has to go up against Obama, he's going to come off lame in comparison as far as style and excitement.

He is old. He'd take office at 72 I think. If he won another term, he'd leave at 80. It makes the VP pick a bit more than just theoretical. He could concievably die in office just from being an old old man.

I'm a Democrat, so versus Obama, I would vote for Obama. I have an unexplained dislike for Clinton, so versus Clinton, I might consider McCain. But if a Democrat were to lose to McCain, I think I could live with that, whereas any of the other Republican candidates would have really bothered me.