It’s a perfectly fine soft-patriotic sell for his candidacy, but utterly substanceless. What are the issues John McCain is running on? It’s almost entirely a character and experience campaign.

UPDATE:

Mr. Lowry,
Yes, Sen. McCain is running on a character and experience campaign. Don’t dismiss is so quickly. I’m sure I’m not the only Republican who is horrified at how my party embraced the big-spending government-by-lobbyist scheme of Jack Abramoff. Sen. McCain is the only candidate who touches on that ethical failure of our party. For that reason alone, I’m pulling for Sen. McCain.

E-mail:

Rich,
No one cares about issues.
Look at Iowa, a hotbed of anti-illegal immigration sentiment, it gave about half of its delegates to the Amnesty duo of Huckabee & McCain.
Look at NH, where half of McCain’s voters wanted someone to the Right of Bush, the rest wanted someone to his Left and they all think they got it.
Issues, substance, perish the thought. A cult of personality is what it takes to win a primary.
Signed,
A deeply cynical Fredhead.

E-mail:

McCain is running on national defense, of course. It is a single-issue campaign to more or less the same extent that Tancredo’s was. But it’s a bigger issue and McCain is a more formidable man. Character and experience are being used primarily to underline his ability to handle the job. Basically, he is waiting for Romney to climb into a tank.