McTastic!

Fox News is calling New Hampshire for John McCain. Bill Kristol, very unconvincingly, is attributing both McCain's initial tailspin and his stirring comeback to "the war." (I don't think McCain's support for the war hurt him more than a percentage point or two, if that—it's a GOP primary, fer chrissakes.)

Anyway, three cheers from here for an impressively volatile election thus far. Huckabee, with no money, comes out of nowhere to win in Iowa. McCain, left for dead, wins in New Hampshire. South Carolina is anyone's guess, Romney will end the evening with the most delegates, and Stupor Tuesday might yet work for the currently forgotten Rudy Giuliani. It's an unprecedentedly compressed election schedule, both parties are up for grabs, and nobody really knows what the hell is going on. Sounds like a win-win-win to me. I mean, minus the candidates.

Update: McCain's victory speech was among his most classic National Greatness/cause-greater blasts he's uncorked all campaign. Plenty of "I always told you the truth" palate-cleansers, leading to grandiloquent stuff about how he and his competitors have been working for a "cause greater than … self-interest," that that "greater cause has always been my country," that "America is our cause, yesterday, today and tomorrow," that "her greatness is our hope," that "her goodness" is the "hope of mankind," that "serving only oneself" is "petty," that sacrifice is "sublime," and on, and on, and on. Get used to it. And don't say you weren't warned.

There was also much more limited-government rhetoric than usual, so hoo-ray for that.

Best lines: "We will never surrender; they will!" And: "We are the makers of history, not it's victims!" Why, it's almost as if we're the underdog!

Update II: Here's a 10-minute podcast about McCain I recorded earlier today with Cato's Caleb Brown.