Last night on "David Letterman" Senator McCain announced his presidential run. It was interesting. While McCain is very hawkish on Iraq, Mr. Letterman, as you know, is not.
When I spoke with Dave last November it went like this:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: You want the United States to win in Iraq.
LETTERMAN: First of all, I don't see any.
O'REILLY: It's an easy question. If you don't want the United States to win in Iraq.
LETTERMAN: It's not easy for me because I'm thoughtful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Mr. Letterman went on to call me a bonehead and other stuff. So I expected Dave to challenge John McCain a bit on Iraq. Didn't happen:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LETTERMAN: OK. So the country of Iraq is stabilized, the government, as you described, is viable.
McCAIN: Functioning.
LETTERMAN: Yes. The violence is now significantly reduced. The net benefit to the United States, beyond Americans have stopped lose their lives there, is what?
McCAIN: Probably that we have a functioning democracy or a government that will become a democracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now Mr. Letterman's demeanor aside, Senator McCain was smart to announce on Dave's show, because he needs independents and liberals to support him. Most conservatives will not.
According to a brand new FOX News poll, the McCain campaign is slipping badly. Right now 39 percent of Republicans are supporting Rudy Giuliani. Just 19 percent like McCain.
Of course it's very early, but two things stand out so far. First, John McCain is so low energy, and you saw it there, it's tough to get excited by his candidacy. And second, his staff is very tough to deal with.
“The Factor” wants to give all the candidates in both parties a fair shot. And most of those running are respectful when we call to ask questions. But McCain's staff is not. They are nasty. And this is dumb. We're not their enemies. We simply want information.
Now I've praise John McCain'sWar on Terror vision and criticize him for being soft on border security. I believe he is a patriot. But I also believe he has no chance of winning unless he gets his fastball back.
He can hang around with Dave Letterman all he wants but unless he convinces traditional Americans that he is looking out for them and that he has the energy to do the job as president and that he is accessible to answer tough questions, he has no chance.
John McCain has a lot of work to do if he wants to be president. A lot of work.
And that's "The Memo."
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