In wanting to be above it all, inhabiting a new politics in a new arena, he is already being portrayed with his head in the clouds, disconnected from earthly realities, as in the Jib Jab Cartoon.

Nor does it really matter how self-contradictory and self-defeating are the policies recommended by McCain.  If NATIONAL SECURITY becomes the main issue, a whole lot of people will decide their vote on primal and emotional levels and go with the Old Warrior image rather than the Cool Reformer Intellectual image.  That is probably the only thing that could give McCain the election.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."