Get thee to Vegas, John McCain

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | March 5, 2008 | +

I have a story up today about the remarkable two-month run of luck that made John McCain the Republican nominee. To wit:

Almost everything broke his way: Mike Huckabee won Iowa, crippling the powerhouse campaign of Mitt Romney. Rudy Giuliani abandoned New Hampshire, allowing his moderate supporters to shift to McCain. Fred Thompson stayed in the race until South Carolina, bleeding enough votes away from Huckabee to allow McCain to win that key state. Even Huckabee seemed to cooperate, devoting crucial days to a foolhardy effort in Michigan and swearing off any negative attacks on McCain before he bowed out of the race Tuesday night.

And on Tuesday McCain got the greatest gift of all: An increasingly nasty Democratic nomination fight that will last at least through April. Now all McCain has to do is figure out how to use a normal teleprompter like everyone else.

Related Topics: Uncategorized

@TIMEPolitics

Latest on Swampland

Mitt Romney May 23, 2012

Romney Defends Bain Record, Hits Obama on Economy: ‘He Just Doesn’t Have a Clue’

Mitt Romney lashed President Obama’s economic stewardship in an interview with TIME’s Mark Halperin on Wednesday, deflecting attacks on his years as a private equity executive and laying out how he hopes to take control of the economy as soon as he’s sworn in, should he defeat Obama in November.
From our Partners
Lewis Eisenberg, Major Romney Donor, Accuses Obama Of Demonizing Wall StreetHuffPost Politics

Twice-Told TalesSlate
Mitt Romney's $11.7 Million Raised In April Isn't The Whole PictureHuffPost Politics
Mitt Romney May 23, 2012

Mother of Mitt: How Lenore Romney’s Failed Campaign Shaped the Presumptive Republican Nominee

This week’s TIME cover story, “The Mother of the Mitt Campaign,” tells the tale of how Lenore Romney’s 1970 run for U.S. Senate may have made a bigger impression on the Republican presidential candidate than his years spent as the son of a governor. Mitt’s father lost his own presidential bid, but it was the lessons from his mother’s loss that are more instructive as Romney enters the campaign stretch.