Can we just take a moment to remark on how extraordinary this victory really is? How McCain fired most of his staff last summer amid reports that he had run through a preposterous amount of money to no result? How very sensible political thinkers whose names I will not share with you assumed he was finished and would get out of the race in September 2007 at the latest?

In a year in which Republicans face terrific headwinds, party members who are presumed by the media to be a bunch of ideological maniacs seem to have walked backwards into nominating the only Republican candidate who could possibly win in November, given his potential to pull independent voters back into the GOP camp — and given the stark contrast he offers to the likely Democratic nominee.