An excerpt:

This is not to suggest we are blind to the senator’s flaws, or his drawbacks compared to his competitors. He is less a master of economics than, say, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Far inferior an orator than former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. And he presents less of an executive’s resume than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And, of course, he is imperfectly conservative – if someone with an American Conservative Union ranking nearly the equal of conservative icon Fred Thompson’s can be judged imperfect. But as a candidate who embodies the only characteristics of Ronald Reagan that really matter in these troubled times – personal integrity and commitment to principle – no other candidate comes close. Any comparison of the candidates that sets other attributes on the same plane as these is simply derivative. The outstanding example of those attributes, of course, is McCain’s commitment to pursuing a successful, positive outcome to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Voters scarcely need to be reminded how cruelly that commitment has been challenged. A year ago at this time, Iraq was an unstable, bloody mess – destined for the chaos of civil war, if not already swept into it. American casualties were approaching the intolerable. For a presidential candidate committed to supporting the Bush administration’s decision to send more troops to that roiling cauldron, prospects were dim, to say the least. Much has changed in Iraq since then. The “surge” has routed terrorists and insurgents from most of their lairs. And, as a result, the Iraqi government, however slowly, is beginning to make some progress toward political compromise among its factions. Baby steps? Certainly. But without the committed support of a tiny group of principled supporters like McCain, even this much progress would not have been possible.