John McCain won enough delegates today to assure him the nomination, and Mike Huckabee gracefully bowed out. McCain gave a speech just a short while ago. On Iraq, he said he would continue to defend the decision to remove Saddam Hussein, but stressed that we are in Iraq and we have to succeed there. He repeatedly challenged the Democratic contenders on their defeatism, protectionism and anti-business rhetoric. His best line may have been: "if you want to keep jobs from going abroad, maybe you shouldn't make it hard to do business at home." That was followed by challenges on issues of taxation and regulation. It is a pretty solidly conservative program.
McCain has some big obstacles to overcome: public disapproval of the war, concern over the state of the economy, lackluster fund raising. But he is starting out with more courage than we have seen from any Presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan. He is definitely not telling people everything they want to hear. It should be a good race.
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