McCain knocks Dems who "chose to lose"

Washington Times:

John McCain, fresh off a trip to Iraq, attacked Democrats yesterday for a "choose to lose" approach to the war, as the Arizona senator tries to find common ground with the Republican primary voters who have deserted him in recent months.

"Defeatism will not buy peace in our time," Mr. McCain said in a speech in New Hampshire. It was his first major campaign event since he announced dismal second-quarter fund-raising efforts and his two top national-campaign operatives resigned and took other staffers with them out the door.

In an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio, Mr. McCain said he is retooling and plans to spend more time campaigning in the three early-contest states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to try to make up in legwork what he cannot do through spending, since his campaign will report it is close to going into the red.

By contrast, Mr. McCain's two top declared opponents for the Republican nomination yesterday filed their quarterly forms with the Federal Election Commission showing each still has plenty of money in the bank.

"We spent too much money, we didn't do a lot of things we should have done, and those are my responsibilities," Mr. McCain said in the radio interview. "We had to obviously change course, try to improve the situation both financially and in other ways, slim down our staff and move forward, and do the kinds of campaigning that won me the [New Hampshire] primary in 2000."

He also retooled his immigration pitch, saying since his calls for a broad bill to include citizenship rights for illegal aliens failed, he now supports moving forward on smaller pieces, such as border security and an agriculture worker program.

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His criticism of the Democrats is overdue. They have been getting a free ride on the defeat bandwagon for too long. The Republicans need to put them on the defensive and and he is a good guy to do that. He should have adopted his current immigration position much earlier. His failure to do so may have cost him any shot at the nomination. His new approach and his campaigning in person rather than through media is a way to compensate for his money woes. I hope he stays in the campaign and continues to hammer Democrats on Iraq.