I think McCain’s answer to the bitch question was horrible. The guys over at the popular and influential PowerLine blog have a different take:

After being given up for dead just a few months ago, John McCain is surging in the polls and turning up in the news. Liberals are trying to make something of the fact that he answered a question by a Republican partisan about “how we beat the bitch” (i.e., Ms. Hillary) without falling over in a dead faint. This, of course, can only be good for his primary prospects.

I will be interested to see overall numbers for Republican fundraising this quarter because it will give us a glimpse as to how the anti-Hillary strategy is working. The last couple months it has been all anti-Hillary all the time. Is this waking up the Republican base? Is it beginning to mobilize them? The next round of numbers will be a leading indicator as to that strategy’s efficacy. If total giving to Republican candidates is up noticeably the answer will clearly be yes. If it is flat, bad days ahead for Republicans because it feels like the anti-Hillary blasts are the last ditch effort to get things moving.