Not surprising that McCain's canidacy may be "dying before our eyes."

A couple of things recently have caused me to write him off. First, his hypocrisy on campaign reform. Second, his recent attack - totally unnecessary - against Don Rumsfeld as "one of the worst" defense secretaries in history. The attack was completely unbecoming of a presidential candidate, and reinforces McCain's image as a person likely to fly off the handle at any given moment. Add to that, an attack against Dick Cheney - again unnecessary - with an apparent private apology to Cheney afterward.

This does not present the image of either a stable or consistent individual, and it explains why McCain is falling fast.

What to say? He's a phony and a hypocrite, and he has been since the day he first entered public office. Enough said.

It's not just about 9/11:

...Meanwhile, writers on the left express disbelief at the notion that a pro-choice Republican candidate might be able to win the GOP nomination. According to the best Leftist analyst of American politics, Michael Tomasky, abortion is simply "too fundamental an issue for most Republican caucus goers and primary voters (even in California, with its likely Feb. 5 primary) to work around."

There's a perfectly simple answer to the Rudy paradox. When Republican voters look at Rudy Giuliani, they know one key fact about him: They know he's no liberal.

They may not exactly know why yet, but they know it.

And they want to find a reason to vote for him, which is just about opposite from the way most feel about John McCain.

Breitbart:

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 500 points with about an hour of trading left today but then gained about 100 of it back. The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 100.

The Dow fell 546.02, or 4.3 percent, to 12,086.06 before recovering some ground. It was down 407.29, or 3.22 percent, at 12,224.97 in the last hour of trading.

But it is being reported that Israel wants to use Iraqi airspace as flyover for a potential attack on Iran.

CBS:

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut told the Politico on Thursday that he has no immediate plans to switch parties, but suggested Democratic opposition to funding the war in Iraq might change his mind.

Lieberman, a registered independent who caucuses with Democrats, has been among the strongest supporters of the war and President Bush’s plan to send another 21,500 combat troops into Iraq to help quell the violence there.

"I have no desire to change parties," Lieberman said in a telephone interview. "If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don't feel comfortable with."

He's never gone this far in his comments before, and one suspects that it is only a matter of time, especially if Democrats mount a serious effort to impose disabling restrictions on the president's conduct of the war, before Lieberman could very well formally cross the political aisle.

If Nancy Pelosi and her Democrats cannot come up with their own alternative in Iraq, other than to complain about and criticize the president's "surge" of troops, then she should not be surprised that some rather harsh criticism should come their way. Whining about it is not likely to lead to a constructive outcome.

A new Quinnipiac poll shows Rudy beating Hillary. And Rudy is 20 points ahead of John McCain. McCain deserves his drop in support. His comment about Don Rumsfeld being "one of the worst" defense secretaries was totally unbecoming of a presidential candidate. It only accentuated McCain's already well established reputation for inconsistency and erratic behavior.

...and now he doesn't. David Geffen speaks.

They might be either proof that a nuclear weapon is being constructed or a high casualty attack on U.S. soldiers in Iraq traced directly to the Iranian government.

After threats by Vladmir Putin just a week ago that a possible new cold war is in the offing, this threat of missile targeting is hardly reassuring, and is likely to lead to a further chill in Russia-West relations.

Lawrence Haas:

Leading Democrats, none more so than their presidential candidates, are disavowing their previous votes or statements for the war and competing for anti-Bush purity. They are demanding that Bush end the war in Iraq before the next (presumably Democratic) president takes office in 2009. Momentum is building to block funding later this year.

But, in playing to their anti-war political base, congressional Democrats are pushing party orthodoxy on foreign policy further to the left. After a two-year campaign, any successful Democratic candidate for president may wind up with little leeway to project U.S. power abroad.

Unfortunately, the world will not likely cooperate with a hemmed-in president. Just as Soviet expansionism in the late 1970s reminded America that the Cold War was still on, so may the aftermath of Iraq remind Americans of the larger struggle at hand. Just as our withdrawal from Vietnam emboldened the Soviets, a withdrawal from Iraq may do likewise for today’s enemies.

That's what Rudy Giuliani called it on Bill Bennett's show this morning. As KJL wrote on The Corner, and it was most refreshing to observe, there was no "No religion of peace talk from him."

Andrew McCarthy's endorsement of Giuliani here:

"Giuliani’s greatest asset may have been his unique understanding that success in any great endeavor hinges on the capacity to explain, relentlessly, what you are doing and why. With that, the public can understand and support you, the bad actors are under no illusions about your commitment, and those on the fence are apt to think better about choosing the wrong side. It is a Reaganesque gift...

Some conservatives worry about Giuliani’s positions on certain social issues, especially abortion. But his positions have not signaled conventional liberalism. He has governed as a limited-government conservative — a species Republicans would do well to rediscover. More to the point, he doesn’t pine for the courts to impose that which the public rejects. To the contrary, he vows to appoint justices who will stick to the individual rights we already have rather than invent new ones as they go along. Who will adjudicate rather than legislate. Who will be our umpires, not our rulers. No president can do more than that to promote conservative outcomes. Conservatism is where the public is. We win a fair fight, a democratic fight, and he is committed to giving us that.

No fight, however, matters as much as the one for our survival. No one will fight that fight better or smarter or more zealously than Rudy Giuliani. That’s why we need him."

The Corner:

You may not be pro-life enough
for the religious right;
You may come on too mean and tough
to please every girl in sight;

While it's true your past is shady
And could spoil photo-ops;
(What with Bernie, the ex-first lady,
And that Louima stuff with the cops...)

I can't help feeling you're the man
with whom to spend the next two terms;
You're a butt-kicking Yankee fan
Who's got no time for worms.

A man who's locked out Arafat
And thrown vagrants into prison
Won't cringe before a Democrat
Or allow Iran nuclear fission.

We need you to beat Obama
Whose grand evasive words
Won't find and kill Osama
Or protect Israel, or the Kurds.

That's why I’ll board the Rudy bus
'Cause in politics as in love
Courage is what carries us
When push comes down to shove

Precisely.

American Spectator:

Theodore Olson, the stalwart conservative lawyer and former solicitor general for the Bush administration, told the Spectator he will be supporting Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid.

"I admire his character, his capacity for leadership, his instincts, and his principles," Olson said over the phone this afternoon. He said he will help Giuliani raise money as well as offer advice on legal issues and domestic policy matters that involve constitutional questions.

Olson and Giuliani have been longtime friends since serving in the Reagan Justice Department from 1981-1983, when Olson was assistant attorney general in charge of the office of legal counsel and Giuliani was associate attorney general. Olson said they met with Attorney General William French Smith every morning and worked closely on a number of issues.

The support of Olson should help Giuliani in his quest to win over social conservatives who remain skeptical of his pledge to appoint strict constructionist judges.

"I've known him for 26 years and we've talked about this many times," Olson said. "He feels very strongly that people like Justice Scalia, Chief Justice Roberts, Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, are the type of people that he would put on the court…I'm quite convinced that this is a genuine viewpoint that he has."

When asked about differences conservatives have with Giuliani on issues such as abortion and gay rights, Olson said: "Rudy's views on many, many issues are going to be very compatible with people in the conservative political community and the political legal community. Nobody's going to be able to find a candidate with whom they agree with 100 percent on every issue. Overall, Rudy's strength of character, his capacity for leadership in a time when a strong executive is important, his energy level, his ability to provide the kind of leadership that Ronald Reagan did -- I think that is going to be very persuasive with conservatives."