I have always felt that McCain's primary appeal to his fellow conservatives, and the only reason that he was ever a front runner, was that liberals liked him too. Since 2000, it seems that Republicans have made clear what exactly they don't like about him, and generally, it has been all of the things that liberals did like about him - anti-corruption, campaign finance reform, opposition to torture, and above all else, a willingness to rock the boat and challenge Bush. To be sure, his support for the war was not one of their gripes. However, because these things endeared him to liberals, and created the possibility of a McCain candidacy that dramatically bled support from the traditional Democratic base, his fellow conservatives had to grudgingly offer him a measure of respect and deference that they otherwise were not inclined to.

What sank his campaign was in fact, as Ariana says, his continued support for the war, as well as his caving in on the issue of torture and the right of habeas corpus. However, this is not because of what conservatives think of those things, but rather what liberals think of those things. Liberals, who had previously liked him due to his aforementioned anti-corruption positions and intraparty feistyness, have grown impatient with his continued embrace of this most corrupt of wars. The death knell for his chances came when he caved into the administration on torture and habeas corpus. Abandoning that principled stand destroyed all of his credibility among liberals as a principled fighter who is unafraid of challenging the powers that be within his own party. To us, he is now just another hypocrite.

Once liberals rejected him, conservatives were no longer obliged to mind him and his eccentricities any more. Hence, his collapse.

...this seems like a very bad idea. Take note, the letters in response are almost all in opposition.

If you are, by chance, considering a similar fate for Beyond the Multiplex, I would strongly urge you to reconsider.

I guess my point was that they didn't really like him all along, but they had to take note of him because he was a broadly popular media star, and that broad popularity directly had to do with his cross-party appeal.

No, the conservative base is not looking for a candidate beloved by liberals. However, I don't think that fretting about electability is an exclusively Democratic malady. I think that Arnold Schwartzenegger is evidence of a candidate who was able to use broad crossover appeal to create an electability mandate that superseded the preferences and concerns of the base. McCain was able to hold out the prospect of that possibility until his continued support for the war, and the capitulation of his principled stance against torture, eroded his crossover appeal.

Thanks for directly responding to me. It was kind of cool having someone from Salon take note of what I said.

...is Dinesh D'Sousa publicly proclaiming "D'Souza's law of immigration: The quality of an immigrant is inversely proportional to the distance travelled to get to the United States."

He actually used those words - the "quality" of an immigrant!! Straight up racism!!

I log onto Salon almost every day, and don't recall ever reading a letter that speaks of killing either Bush or Cheney, or muses about their assasination. If one were to surface, I imagine it would get quite a hostile response from many of the other writers. If you could document this claim of yours, I would like to see it. However, keep in mind that one anonymously posted letter - or two, or ever four - does not constitute a consistent theme of discussion, given the amount of letter writers that Salon has. Johann Hari indicates that such violent and racist items were, in fact, consistent themes on the on the cruise.

As for calling Bush and Cheney nazi's, fascists, and homicidal maniacs, I think that the shoe fits. Bush/Cheney came into office unfairly; have consistently shown contempt for the law, the constitution, and civil and human rights; and started an unnecessary war that has killed thousands of people. This is as close to a fascist dictatorship as we have ever come.

This was posted back in March. What is it doing in the active discussion section of the front page today, August 14th?