This poor guy needs to retire,I salute him for his service,but his time,and warmongering ideas are unrealistic.

McCain's "unrealistic" ideas about how to fight the battle in Iraq seem to be working rather well.

As for "amnesty" you will see Comprehensive Immigration Reform before you see 20 million illegals deported as you will NEVER see 20 million illegals deported.

As a Navy Officer that is being deployed to the middle east, McCain is the only candidate that I trust. He has been there, knows what it takes to win and does what he says without paying lip service to veterans.

Keep up the good work John!

All right, the fact is John McCain is not yet nominated and he can’t win the Presidency unless he’s nominated. So let’s concentrate on that issue first. Clinton is in the lead for the Democrats, so it looks very likely she will be their nominee. If that doesn’t happen we’ll have to fall back and re-assess the situation, but for the sake of this argument, let us assume that she is. The front runners for the Republican nomination are listed below. I have not included those fine folks who are polling in single digits. I don’t think they have a snowball’s chance, frankly. If you think they do, just add them to the list and ask yourself the same question.

Clinton versus Giuliani. Who do you think will win?
Clinton versus Huckabee. Who do you think will win?
Clinton versus Romney. Who do you think will win?
Clinton versus Thompson. Who do you think will win?
Clinton versus John McCain. Who do you think will win?

Looking at that list don’t rely on who YOUR favorite candidate is. That’s not the point of the exercise. Of the Republicans listed above, who do you think realistically has a chance to beat Clinton?

Giuliani: You can’t grin your way to the presidency. Yes, he did fine with 9/11 and he did some good stuff with NYC, but he’s still a liberal Republican who will turn off the conservative Republicans and not make as much of a differentiation between himself and the liberal Clinton. In that contest, he’ll lose. He’s too much like a Democrat. Since Hillary is a better Democrat than Rudy, she'll win.

Huckabee: Governor and preacher, way too conservative for the middle Republicans. Family values and anti-abortion are great, but what about Iraq? What about social security? Swing voters will never elect what amounts to a single-issue candidacy. Do Americans want a preacher in the White House? It won’t happen.

Romney: A professional politician as rich as a Kennedy. He’s a politician who has spent a lot of money and (yes, this isn’t ‘fair,’) he’s a Mormon who means it. Can you see the conservative wing voting for him? Can you see the swing voters voting for him? Nope. They won’t. Clinton wins again.

Thompson: I like him. He’s honest, straightforward, and has some experience. It’s just that he gives a sleepy impression and the world is very black & white to him. He doesn’t have a chance for the nomination, really, and he won’t beat Clinton. I think he's polling well because people like him--but they won't vote for him.

The fact is that John McCain is the only Republican candidate who has a chance to beat Clinton. Conservative where it matters, principled, experienced, and will appeal to a broad cross-section of voters, including swing voters and conservatives. He may not be conservative enough for the extreme right, but what are they going to do? Let Clinton win? Plus McCain is about the best Commander-in-Chief you could ever hope to have. He's a leader who's earned it.

So, if you want Clinton as President, choose a Republican candidate other than McCain. That will do the trick, guaranteed. But choose McCain and we just might get a Republican elected. It's the only way it's even possible. If you prefer another Republican nominee, it's time to re-evaluate. Just how, exactly, are you going to get anyone other than McCain into the White House?

It was uplifting to see John McCain, South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, and Jon Huntsman in the chow hall on Thanksgiving. It would serve other politicians well to put their feet on the ground in Iraq instead of just talking about it all the time.