It's funny how the the surge was such a great "political move" for McCain but

no one asks McCain if his support for the surge was part of his political strategy. It's amazing how McCain accuses Obama of making political foreign policy decisions while saying his support for the surge was done purely out of love of country.

McCain is on record being a BIG cheerleader for the Iraq War (saying such stupid things as oil would pay for the war, it would be an easy win, we'd be viewed as liberators, etc.) Right out of the gate McCain said that he'd rather lose an election than lose a war BUT without the surge to try to bring down the violence would McCain have had a chance of even winning the Republican primary? The whole "I'd rather lose an election rather than lose a war" sure did silence any charges that McCain needed the surge if he was going to have a chance at the Presidency and allowed McCain to try to recapture his maverick, I'm not a politician image.

On edit: Paying people not to fight does help to ensure the surge would be viewed in a positive light. It couldn't have been done for political reasons, could it? Oh what am I thinking. McCain and gang only do things out of their love of country.

He has nothing to run on.

He can't talk about the economy except to bring up the high price of oil. That only emphasizes what a miserable failure Operation Iraq Liberation (OIL) has been since, they claimed it would provide us with more oil at lower prices.

He can't talk about cutting spending after they spent a trillion dollars on the Iraq fiasco and it's not over yet.

Bringing the troops home is apparently a no no.

The GOP has pretty much shown their colors on health care. That's not a winner for them.

There's nothing to run on record wise because the record is so bad.

It all keeps coming back to Iraq Iraq Iraq. What ever the outcome there, it is still pretty much up in the air but one thing is for sure. It's been a disaster for us.

All he can do is focus on one small part of the war, the surge. He's already sounding like a broken record,"Iraq surge! Iraq surge! Iraq surge!". How's he going to look if he keeps going on for the next 3 1/2 months obsessing about the surge?

a lot of attack ads shown in VA) and to sell the McCain "image" (there have been a lot of pro McCain commercials in VA).