Sen. McCain — a different perspective

Dan Balz of the Washington Post has a different perspective on John McCain’s Iowa campaigning than the one I presented yesterday (per Jonathan Martin of the Politico). Balz finds that, while McCain seems “subdued, even dour” in Washington, he’s found some of his old “exuberance” on the campaign trail.
I hope I didn’t overstate my impression of McCain in yesterday’s post. During the Des Moines event, he was hardly sullen. Rather, he seemed to be in pretty good spirits overall, and showed flashes of humor. But his answers on Iraq, the topic that dominated the questioning were quite somber, consistent with many of the facts on the ground and perhaps with the fatalism McCain exhibited in the final line of Balz’s piece.