I just received a fund-raising plea from the McCain campaign touting last night's victories and bearing the subject line: "History in the Making."
I've read the email several times now, and I still can't find any reference to or even suggestion of how a McCain presidency would in any way make history. Surely they aren't trying to draw our attention to the fact that McCain would be the oldest person ever to assume the office. (The Gipper was just shy of 70 when his first term began.) And there's no way they're referring to the Tony Blankley column I mentioned earlier, which begins with Blankley marveling about how a McCain nomination would show "how whimsical history can be" because:
It would be the first time in living memory that a Republican presidential nomination went to a candidate who was not merely opposed by a majority of the party but was actively despised by about half its rank-and-file voters across the country--and by many, if not most, of its congressional officeholders. After all, the McCain electoral surge was barely able to deliver a plurality of one-third of the Republican vote in a three-, four- or five-way split field. He has won fair and square, but he has driven the nomination process askew.
So exactly what historic breakthrough do we think McCain is going for here? Anyone?
--Michelle Cottle