I still don't believe that McCain will run in 2008. His health hasn't always been good, and bad health would make the campaign a very rough experience. On top of that, the presence of Mitt Romney and possibly Chuck Hagel in the race will split the voters who supported him last time. If he runs, he's likely to come in third or fourth in quite a few early states. If he comes in third in those states, no one will care what he says about anything. If he stays out of the race, he can keep drawing attention throughout the campaign as "the guy who shoulda' been there." He can also keep talk of being nominated in a brokered convention alive. Once he's beaten in a few primaries, all of that attention will disappear.
The Weekly Standard (or is it Weakly Standard) seems to be trying very hard to ignore the fact that stronger conservatives will be in the race. I suspect that both of them will have problems reaching the nomination.
I'm also tired of people thinking that the whole nomination needs to be decided in the first few primaries. The strongest candidates in the general election are the ones who had the toughest fights for the nomination. Bill Clinton was nearly out of it, and he ended up winning in '92. His win kept the Democrats in power for eight years. Ronald Reagan was one primary loss away from quitting in 1980. If he'd lost North Carolina, he'd have given up entirely. He won, and his win carried the GOP to 12 years in the White House. I realize that the insiders would like to think that the best plan is to decide things early before the voters really speak through the primaries, but that plan isn't what's best for the country.
Bill
Don't kid yourself, McCain is definitely running. You can see his miserable attempts to court conservatives. Don't think for a moment that he'd be kissing rightwing butt if he wasn't going to run.
McCain IS the media's candidate for the GOP nomination, that's a very important ally.If he is the nominee there will be essentially two Democrats running. The media can't lose.