An e-mail:

Hi again, Rich- Terrific piece by you guys today. It left me with the following thoughts about ’08: 1) After his dazzling speech yesterday, and the thoughtful Ponnuru & Goldberg “rethinking McCain” pieces, I’m reminded again that no other candidate in the Republican field would be better than McCain on foreign policy. I detest the trope that those who serve (and their families) should get a heavily-ringed thumb on the scale in public debates about war and peace, but the trope exists, and McCain’s life experiences and current family commitment make people more likely to listen to him. 2) I still have grave doubts about McCain’s electability. Ramesh’s case is built on strong logic: “McCain is more conservative than you think,” he says, and he proves it. Fair enough. But this doesn’t deal with the electoral difficulty of having a party standard bearer with a negative emotional bond with his (potentially) most loyal foot soldiers. For 7 years, McCain has seemingly always taken a position different from the party. When the party tacked to the center (Medicare, big spending), he tacked right. When the party tacked right (immigration, tax cuts, global warming), he tacked left. Maybe this has been high principle, but it’s created a negative emotional bond with the base. Now, one can possibly get elected with suspicion from the base, e.g. Bush ‘88. But I don’t think the base can be reasoned out of a negative emotional bond, any more than Democrats could be talked into canvassing Ohio for Lieberman because he “votes with us most of the time.” In a close election, that will matter a lot. 3) The Media Divorce has huge political implications. McCain’s appeal to the center was always built on a media created halo. As Jonah has observed, “a good Republican is a useful Republican,” one whom the media can cite in its talking points against (usually) conservative policies. Now that McCain is acting on clear and admirable principle, the halo is being stripped from him, which greatly complicates his appeal to swing voters. Whereas McCain’s zealous rhetorical excesses were once lauded as straight-talk, now they are nit-picked. 4) For conservatives in the GOP, doesn’t this strengthen the case for Fred Thompson? While he doesn’t have the biography card in foreign affairs, he’d be indistinguishable from McCain on actual policy, and his rhetorical gifts would bridge some of that gap anyway. He’s at least as far to the right as any of the other three frontrunners, and on his big negatives (age and medical history), Rudy and McCain are in exactly the same boat. His other possible negative is “thin record,” but again, that won’t matter in a general election against Edwards-Hillary-Obama. If you, me, Ramesh, and Jonah were in a smoke-filled room picking our Electable Conservative, wouldn’t we be lead inexorably to Fred?