HoodaThunk?

The WaPo runs an opinion article in their Outlook section today titled “The Front Runners: Problems on the Left / Problems on the Right” that details the issues faced by the two political wings’ front runners. The Left side is an analysis of Hillary Clinton by none other than Markos “Screw Them” Moulitsas, a.k.a. Kos. The Right side deals with John McCain.

So, my first question is this: in what addled brain at the Washington Post is John McCain a front runner for the GOP? The article is by Byron York of the National Review and starts off with this bit of insight:

Last October, J. David Woodard, a Clemson University political scientist who doubles as a strategist for conservative Republican candidates, polled 450 South Carolina GOP voters, asking: “When it comes to politics, do you consider yourself closer to George W. Bush or John McCain?” Sixty-three percent picked Bush. Twenty-one percent said it made no difference. And just 16 percent chose McCain.

The message? “I think McCain has a lot of work to do if he’s going to win here,”…

That sound like a front-runner to you? In virtually no conversation I’ve had with anyone – Republican, Democrat, or Independent – has anyone advanced the idea that John McCain has a ghost of a chance to get the GOP nod for the 2008 election. No one. None. McCain’s defense of his BCRA speech limitations, his recent comment about preferring the McCain-approved “clean government” over First Amendment rights, and his on-again-off-again support for the President has made him an untrustworthy Republican. My fellow GOP’ers aren’t going to forget that and there are plenty of other potential candidates.

McCain seems unable to go for long without doing or saying something that pisses off the GOP’s base and it’s a long time to 2008. The only people who see him as the front runner are people who hope, as the WaPo obviously does, that simply saying he’s the front runner over and over will make it so.