I disagree with Rich Lowry on this one (I know that he’s the brilliant expert but I think he isn’t taking into account how ticked off the base is at Congress):

I was struck last week in New Hampshire how cheerful and upbeat both Romney and Giuliani were. I don’t think that’s where the conservative mood is. It’s getting more mad and disgusted by the hour (at and with the Democrats, the drift of events in the world, the failures of the Bush administration). That’s the sentiment a “give ’em hell” McCain could tap into, and he had an excellent start with his VMI speech yesterday (here’s our editorial on it).

We aren’t just disgusted with Bush or the Democrats, we’re disgusted with the Republicans in Congress who had the majority and did squat with it. In fact they acted like Democrats. They helped Bush spend like there was no tomorrow. And we had the majority, there was no reason Bush couldn’t get his judges through and if they had hung together they might have done it but McCain threw his leadership and his colleagues under the bus so that he could make a deal with the Democrats. Why would we want someone that foolish, self-centered and lacking any loyalty whatsoever? He didn’t demonstrate leadership, he demonstrated hubris. He wouldn’t make a strong advocate for conservatisms, he would be an advocate for himself.
Sorry but no amount of support for the war will make us vote for the guy. If he were the only candidate in the field who was strong on the war then I would hold my nose and vote for him. But he isn’t, we have many candidates to choose from and we don’t have to accept someone that we don’t trust.