The mystery is why anyone would think the foreign-affairs part of Sen. McCain’s brain is not in sync with the part that produced: McCain/Feingold legislation that eviscerates core free-speech rights on which a functioning democratic republic depends; or proposals for massive, unregulated immigration (from someone claiming the mantle of national security paragon, no less); or global-warming legislation, the latest iteration of the senator’s Big Government regulatory penchant (we are talking, after all, about someone who has suggested federal government intervention in everything from professional boxing to major league baseball); or opposition to the Bush tax cuts in class-warfare rhetoric so strident it would make Hillary Clinton blush (including a swipe just last week against “greedy people on Wall Street who need to be punished”); or the Gang of 14 deal, which undermined a conservative effort to end Democrat filibusters against the Bush judicial nominees.

The surge can only camouflage so much. Sen. McCain’s readiness to be the commander-in-chief fit for today’s perils is the grand hope his supporters offer to overcome substantial conservative doubts. It’s a mirage.

National Review