'A gritty, kind of stand-up guy'.

No, not Charlton Heston. It's a GOP fundraiser's description of John McCain's appeal:

"There is a tremendous amount of respect for John McCain out there," says the fundraiser. "He's seen as a gritty, kind of stand-up guy. They're not familiar with the dark side of John McCain that folks inside the Beltway are."

Jonathan Martin opines:

McCain has considerable appeal to those Republicans and conservative-leaning Americans who are not hyper-engaged and consumed by an issue matrix. The more casual the voter, the more likely he or she is to like McCain. Why? Because . . . the information flow they have is largely confined to Vietnam vet, POW, straight talker and maybe maverick.

Martin does not say what's likely to happen after Labor Day, when the Democrat/MSM complex starts bombarding the public with a non-stop barrage of negative information about McCain. Nor does Martin suggest how voters will react when they see a 72-year-old, 5-foot-7, bald man notorious for his bad temper in a nationally-televised debate against young, tall, lanky, affable media darling Barack Obama.

At the risk of sounding like part of the "political elite," McCain's biggest problem as a candidate is that he doesn't look presidential. George W. Bush may be an idiot, but at least he's a tall idiot with hair. The last three bald candidates for president were Hubert Humphrey ('68), George McGovern ('72) and Gerald Ford ('76).