McCAIN RAISES MONEY FOR BURR

John McCain was in Winston-Salem last night, helping Dick Burr raise $100,000. He gave an interview to Rob Christensen of the N&O, but there's no other newspaper coverage in the state that we could find.

He wants to increase the size of the Marine Corps and the Army by at least 100,000 -- 80,000 Army and 20,000 Marines -- but is against a draft, or rather, he thinks a draft would be politically impossible. He naturally wants to send a fair proportion of those new soldiers to Iraq, to beef up that war.

Recruitment for the all-volunteer Army is struggling right now to stay up with demand. Where's he going to get all those new soldiers without a draft?

McCain's hawkishness makes him look less electable today than it did a year ago. Bush's stubbornness may make Iraq an even bigger issue in 2008, and how does that help McCain?