McCain talks the party line

For a change, it's the Republicans who are keeping their candidate on a short leash Michael Tomasky in Washington It's now just more than three weeks since Hillary Clinton gracefully ended her competition against Barack Obama - that is, we're three weeks into the general election campaign. What's the most surprising thing that's happened so far? To me it's obvious: John McCain keeps making what seem reasonably intelligent moves - and gaining no ground. In the past three weeks, McCain has pushed Obama hard on the issue that will presumably be his strongest, fighting terrorism, in the wake of the mid-June supreme court decision extending habeas corpus rights to non-citizen detainees, a decision he opposed and Obama supported. A firm majority of Americans is with McCain. But here we are, and little has changed since June 7, the... [read full story]