Reply #18: McCain has been quite careful NOT to explicitly say that he'll govern like Shrub.

[Carrieyazel]

He's done everything to get the radical/ultracon Repukes to fall into line of course, but he rarely mentioned; basically ignored Shrub, except for the obligatory Shrub White House visit.

Now he gets to run towards the center. He'll try to run away as far as he can from the Shrub failures; and he'll likely get away with it.

He's an effective candidate, whether we want to deal with it or not.

1. "Straight Talk Express"
2. "Maverick"
3. Has higher favorability and lower unfavorables than Hillary or Obama.
4. Has much higher approval ratings than Shrub or Chainee
5. Isn't a member of the Shrub administration; so not technically an incumbent and can rail against the Shrubbers when he believes it'll help him politically (and he'll be doing it soon).

He's getting to define himself right now, with little opposition from Obama/Hillary and run an early pre-GE campaign to "introduce" himself. He is doing whatever he wants right now. No surprise that he's ahead of both Democratic candidates.