I flagged this in today’s TPMtv episode and posted a reader email on it yesterday, but if I had my choice, John McCain would not be the candidate I’d want the Democratic candidate to face in November. He’s got lots of liabilities, on a whole number of fronts. Not least of which is the fact that most if not all the big constituencies in the Republican party (with the exception of the largely scribal and numerically small neocon constituency) has big problems with him. But the DC press corps loves the guy. You cannot overestimate that.
And that has an effect. Yesterday, Kos posted some Rasmussen numbers of favorable and unfavorable numbers of major presidential contenders. Kos’s point was that whichever candidate you choose you’ll basically start with one who about half the country likes and about half the country doesn’t.
But there’s one number that’s substantially outside that pattern: McCain’s. Rasmussen has him down at 53% favorable, the highest but by an insignificant margin and 37% unfavorable. The next closest unfavorables are Edwards and Thompson, both at 42%. All but one of the others is 50% or over.
That is a real advantage going in to a national race. Not necessarily one that makes a big dent in the generally unfavorable terrain for Republicans — but it’s still a big deal.
