TPM Reader NC ties together the threads ...

What should be noted about McCain's 100-year Scarlet Letter is the full context, beyond even the exchange in New Hampshire: He bet his nomination on Petraeus and improvement in Iraq. It worked. But now the myopic, hawkish bluster of "make it 100" (or "Bomb, Bomb Iran") that served him well in January is a doozy to deal with in the general. The vast majority of this country doesn't agree with him on Iraq and that is now paired with the momentary lapse in violence once again escalating. This isn't only an issue of McCain's careless word choice. It's about his painful shortcomings (and the Republican Party's) come November.