Not Now John McCain

The Republican side of the fundraising reports is coming in. Mitt Romney basically tied Hillary Clinton, with $23 million raised from his rolodex fattened by decades in venture capitalism. Rudy Giuliani earned a strong $15 million, $10 million of that in March. John McCain came in… third, with $12.5. Less money than Democratic also-ran John Edwards. The Hotline's blog dances around the gallows pole:

6. The media will treat this as a grevious, potentially fatal wound. It's not, but it's not outpatient surgery either. We're talking enemas, muscle scrapings, and lots of pain—in the short term.

7. When McCain returns from Iraq, he'll give what his campaign bills as a major speech. Then he'll officially (again) launch his presidential committee with a multi-state tour. Consider these a reset.

8. Why aren't institutional Republican donors giving to McCain yet?

9. Does McCain have more than $5M CoH?

10. The response from a rival campaign manager: "Wow." The response from a rival communications director: "Wow." The response from a McCain sympathizer who IM'd us: "FX@#&*)"

Yeah, seriously. The man has been running for president since he released his delegates to Bush in 2000, and he's getting shellacked by a habitual cross-dresser and a man named "Willard." Matt Welch's cover story is growing less relevant—but no less readable!—by the day. This as Joel Kotkin uses the pages of McCain's newspaper to bury "the Sun Belt mafia" McCain was resting his hopes with.