Josh Marshall: "The Bright Side" - McCain likely at his peak

[featherman]

This has been my take also on the current head-to-head polls showing the sidelined McCain roughly even versus either bloodied and exhausted primary Dem. He should be easily ahead and the fact that he is not is bad news for the GOP. Once the Dems settle this and the party coalesces around our winning candidate and begins defining McCain/Bush in OUR terms, he will fade. This is a Dem year... everything historic affirms this. The American people have never returned a party to power once it's brand name has become so badly damaged as the current GOP and its leader.

So take a deep breath and get on the bus for this historic and exciting ride through the rest of the primary season. We are nominating the next President:

Josh Marshall:
"I've said this a number of times in conversations with friends and I'm not sure if I've written it up on TPM or not. But while there a lot of downsides for the Democrats about the current primary campaign (regrettably, so many self-inflicted), there is one thing that I think bodes well for the Democrats -- or at least shows a problem for John McCain.

That is this: right now McCain is enjoying his post-nomination-clinching honeymoon. He's also got the field completely clear. No one's out there whacking him everyday, which means the press has no McCain-whacking stories to churn through. On the other hand, the Democrats are beating each other senseless. They daily hit on each others' weaknesses, which not only airs their dirty laundry, and gets the press to talk about it. It also breeds resentment between the supporters of the Democratic candidates, thus pushing up the number Democrats saying they're unwilling to vote for the possible nominee. Put that all together and John McCain is enjoying the most favorable environment he's going to get right now and the Democrat (whoever is the nominee) is probably suffering the worst. And with all that, the race appears to be essentially tied.

I don't want to be Polyannish. With all the terrible news Republicans are getting these days and with an incumbent Republican president who is now more unpopular than any president in modern history, the fact that the Republicans have a nominee who is very much in the race is little short of astounding and very disheartening for any Democrat. With all that said, though, this simple fact should not be forgotten. I assure you smart Republican strategists are not. "