McCain Losing Ground

It's a long way to the primaries, but early indications indicate that the "Straight Talk Express" is in need of some refueling. It's starting to fade (from Political Wire):

The Boston Herald's Brett Arends got an advance look at a new American Research Group poll from New Hampshire that shows Sen. John McCain's popularity among New Hampshire's independent voters "has collapsed."

"For seven years, conventional wisdom has said that the state's pivotal independent voters would line up behind maverick Sen. John McCain, as they did so famously in the 2000 GOP primary. But new polling data, to be released later this week, will suggest that might no longer be the case."

Said ARG's Dick Bennett: "John McCain is tanking. That's the big thing [we're finding]. In New Hampshire a year ago he got 49 percent among independent voters. That number's way down, to 29 percent now."

Even more worrying for the McCain campaign is that ARG "is finding a similar trend in other states polled, including early primary battlegrounds like Iowa and Nevada."

I don't think McCain is the juggernaut that many in the press wish him to be. His age will be a big problem, and more than a few conservatives are already fed up with his seeming desire to represent the media more than the Republicans. He may be a factor, but not for long.