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Weisberg in Slate: the literal-minded left has McCain all wrong. He's trying to win over enough of his party's conservative base to win, for sure. But this is a stratagem—the only one, in fact, that gives him a shot at surviving a Republican presidential primary. Discount his repositioning a bit, and McCain looks like the same unconventional character who emerged during the Clinton years: a social progressive, a fiscal conservative, and a military hawk. Should he triumph in the primaries, we can expect this more appealing John McCain to come roaring back.

David Lightman in the Hartford Courant: What may have been seen as feistiness and a penchant for sardonic humor six years ago when he vaulted into national political prominence, is now sometimes regarded as a tendency to be testy and arrogant.

Liasson on NPR: Nobody has helped sell the Bush Administration's war in Iraq better than John McCain. But the Arizona senator has had an up and down relationship with the president ever since their bitter 2000 Republican primary battle. If McCain runs for president in 2008, he will have to win over Bush supporters to win.

Thomas Beaumont in the Des Moines Register: A closer-to-home issue for Iowa voters is McCain's well-publicized opposition to federal subsidies for ethanol.
Iowa is the nation's top producer of the corn-based fuel additive, which has taken on new political cache in light of spiking oil prices. Mark Leonard of Holstein, a Republican candidate for Iowa agriculture secretary, said McCain must come around on the issue to get traction in Iowa.