John Who?

Remember when John McCain was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president? Remember when Democrats used to put their collective heads together about how the heck Hillary could beat a guy who radiated trustworthiness, inspired total confidence, had the military experience, had been tried by his years as a Prisoner of War, stood for independence and integrity, and even had a son in the military academy and another one heading to Iraq, which meant no one could accuse him of being willing to send other parents' children to war?

And remember when John McCain was, politically speaking, dead as a doornail, when his campaign was guilty of raising too little and spending too much, when he was too old to be president, too pro-immigrant to be a radio talk-show host's Republican and too political to get out the words "Straight Talk Express" with a straight face?

Will the real John McCain please stand up?

Is he dead or alive? … Politically speaking, of course.

Is he too old to be president, or too experienced not to be a serious contender?

Guess what. No one knows.

He's back, anyway. He's moving forward in New Hampshire. He's within striking distance of Romney in the polls in the state that made him a household name in 2000, and that almost allowed him to wrench the nomination from that year's golden George. He has picked up steam, endorsements and spirit, and no one is writing him as far off as they did six months ago, even if he is not yet as formidable as he seemed a year ago.

As I'm so fond of saying, you can't beat a horse with no horse. The Republicans have to nominate someone.

Are the Republicans really ready to nominate the Jenny Craig of Republican politics (sorry, Jenny), a man whose sermons as a Baptist minister literally have some Democrats I know foaming at the mouth, or perhaps frothing is the better word given their Biblical subject; a man who, in 2007, soon to be 2008, rejects what almost every kid in America is taught in basic science about evolution and whose only foreign policy experience is dealing with issues arising on Arkansas' borders with Texas and Oklahoma? This is not, as one of my Republican friends puts it, the year for a Huckabee.

So who is it the year for?

Rudy is not wearing well. And the big guns are yet to start shooting. He's still heading down, and in politics, like in markets, it's not just where you are, but where you're headed that counts.

But if not Rudy, then who?

Having spent the last 10 days in Massachusetts, I'm still waiting to meet someone who thinks former Governor Romney is the next president of the United States. More people from here thought Dukakis would make it, and we know what happened then. People I talk to are surprised not that Romney is faltering, but that he's done as well as he has up until now. If he loses Iowa, will New Hampshire fall in place? Or will it just fall? People I talk to are looking for someone new.

Wouldn't it be ironic if someone new turned out to be someone old?

Then we could all go back to talking about whether McCain is too old to be president, whether he has too much of a temper, whether he is too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals and moderates. I remember that conversation. It seems like only yesterday. It was. This could be that kind of year.

To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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