Congratulations
To John McCain.
Many will now consider him the “fairly presumptive” nominee.
I’m not quite as pessimistic as Michael Graham:
You think he supported amnesty six months ago? You think he was squishy on tax cuts and judicial nominees before? Wait until he has the power to anger every conservative in America, and feel good about it.
Every day, he dreams of a world filled with happy Democrats and insulted Republicans.
While I am concerned that McCain may relish his victory over conservatives, I will give him the benefit of the doubt if he whens the nomination.
Kathryn Jean Lopez thinks Romney hit his stride too late:
I’ll shut up after this post, but Romney has been ON since Michigan. It may prove — it may have been proven tonight — to be too late. But this guy speaking right now, is hitting important issues, making you feel good about America, as you should. It’s a rallying speech. Maybe it’s the silly flip-flopping thing that has been too hard to shake. Maybe he took too long to rise above it.
What if Fred had endorsed? What if Jeb had? Ah well.
It may not be over. But it’s going to be hard to kill McCain’s momentum coming out of tonight and a probable Rudy endorsement. He does have the money and the turnaround skills …
Rich Lowry also offers congratulations:
He was flat on his back, and got back up. When he was still down, I didn’t entirely discount him somehow winning NH, but I didn’t see him going anywhere after that. Well, he has. I don’t believe him on immigration and his story on taxes isn’t very straightforward. Over the weekend, he took a shot on Romney on the surge that should have been beneath him. But in the scheme of things, he has run an honorable campaign, based on tireless retail campaigning and strong conviction on national-security matters. If he makes it all the way to the nomination, his will be a legendary campaign.
Finally, Ramesh Ponnuru tells us How McCain Won:
It has seemed a bit like the 1996 race. McCain is Dole: the old war hero who has run before, who does not enthuse either economic or social conservatives but has a pretty conservative record. Giuliani is Forbes: the socially liberal, economically conservative New York candidate. Huckabee is Buchanan: the social conservative with rhetoric that scares economic conservatives. Romney is Gramm, the movement-oriented candidate with boatloads of money but difficulty connecting with grassroots conservative voters. (I’m not sure where Thompson fits in this scheme.) Romney has gotten further than Gramm, but much of the story is the same. The social-Right candidate takes out the movement candidate, the economic conservative ends up not playing a huge role, and the nomination goes to the old guy whom much of the Right distrusts.
All of the folks above write for the National Review — which endorsed Mitt Romney.