John McCain: Will U.S. Republicans Let Him Save Them? …

Will Republicans allow John McCain to save them from ‘an election that was said to be lost in advance?’ Le Figaro’s deputy editorial editor Pierre Rousselin wonders whether Republicans will grasp perhaps their last and best opportunity to retain control of the all-important White House.

“He has managed to exasperate the most traditional Republicans with his positions … but his five and a half years in Vietcong prisons suffering the most brutal torture allow him to take certain liberties. … Here is a man of experience, who stands outside partisan orthodoxy, but who is capable of operating in the “breach” and winning an election that was said to be lost in advance … The Super-Tuesday primaries will show whether the Republicans are able to seize the opportunity.”

By Pierre Rousselin

Translated By James Jacobson

January 31, 2008

France – Le Figaro – Original Article (French

The Republican Party may have found in Florida its providential man. By winning the first primary election held in one of the most populated states of the Union, John McCain is emerging as the favorite in race for the Republican nomination. Six months ago, no one would have bet on this former Vietnam hero who had the mad audacity to applaud the idea of sending additional troops to Iraq.

At age 71, John McCain is not a priori the best-placed man to achieve
unanimity in his party. After all, he has managed to exasperate the most traditional Republicans with his positions in favor of regularizing illegal immigrants, fighting global warming and with his declared opposition to tax reductions decided by Bush.

But his five and a half years in Vietcong prisons suffering the most brutal torture allow him to take certain liberties. And it is precisely this and his frank talk that gives him his appeal.

It must be said that if the duel between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stirs the passions of the Democrats, the competition in the Republican camp is not as scintillating.

The campaign of Rudolf Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who responded so well at the time of the attack on the Twin Towers, is not calling it quits in a most pitiful way. Americans have turned the page on September 11th, 2001, and are not looking for a man who, all told, embodies the memory of that accursed day.

Beyond the religious right and within evangelical circles, Baptist pastor Mike Huckabee has failed convince. Confronted with John McCain, only Mitt Romney remains in the race. But the Mormon businessman who became a governor is struggling to give some coherence to his campaign. He has been unable to prevail anywhere but in Michigan, the state where he grew up.

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