I think a big thing he has going for him is that strategic judgment has to count for something, actually has to count for a lot. You can say the Iraq war was a mistake from the beginning, in which case McCain’s strategic judgment is fatally flawed (although he had plenty of company). But if you support the surge and think it has a chance to work and save the war, you have to give McCain major credit for being right about this from the beginning, and being for it when a lot of Republicans didn’t want to hear it, and now when Democrats and the press don’t want to hear it. His support for the surge isn’t a matter of a press release positioning himself correctly in a presidential race, but a considered strategic judgment.