CHARACTER COUNTS; some-
Mr. Romney built a huge campaign apparatus in Florida over the last year, while Mr. McCain, since his campaign nearly expired last summer, was able to do very little organizationally in the Sunshine State.
Many Floridians voted early--before Mr. McCain picked up the endorsements of Florida U.S. Sen. Mel Marinez and the state's governor, John Crist (to say nothing of Sly Stallone).
The number of voters self-identifying as conservatives rose from 50 percent four years ago to 60 percent this year, and a solid majority preferred Mr. Romney. Independents--a group that has been kind to Mr. McCain--could not vote in the GOP primary.
Yet Mr. McCain pulled out a victory, in no small part, surely, because he seems simply more genuine than his chief GOP opponent, whose stances on key issues such as abortion and immigration have changed with the office he's pursuing. By contrast, Mr. McCain backed a "surge" in Iraq three years before it was ordered, and later when that position badly hurt him in the polls. His "heterodoxies" (ask any of the talk-radio gasbags) on immigration and the environment, whether one agrees with him or not, show him to be a man, not an ambition-twisted taffy stick.
Mr. McCain, now the bona fide Republican front runner, may have saved the angry right from itself. Among Republicans nationally, Mr. McCain has a 71 percent favorable rating, and Independents like him. He could win--and not just the GOP nomination. Never count character out.