Senator John McCain was the first candidate to publicly send his condolences to Rev. Jerry Falwell yesterday.

Now if I wasn’t a cynic I wouldn’t put the following quotes in this block pos

2000: Jerry Falwell is an “Agent of intolerance'’ who is a “shame on our faith, our party and our country.'’
2007: Jerry Falwell was a “Man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country”

Since I am a cynic, I did.

I am behind on my Sunday talk show viewing but John McCain was on Meet the Press today for the full hour & you can download the program from their Web site or by going to iTunes & searching the music store for Meet the Press.

Google often gets a chance for its company heads and employees to sit with prominent people and ask questions. Yesterday Sen. John McCain was added to the list of visitors.

McCain fielded questions about the Iraq war, Darfur, Net Neutrality & other topics during the sit-down of Authors@GOOGLE.

You can also see video of Sen. Hillary Clinton who sat down for a Women@Google meeting.

According to some new polling he is in four important states. So is Mitt Romney in Iowa & New Hampshire.

As I have pointed out with the Democratic side I should do the same for on the Republican side. Watch the state polls not the national ones and especially the early and big states. The primaries will be moved heavily by national press attention etc. but they will still make their own decisions and with the primaries being moved up for some big states it could create some interesting primary results that won’t entirely be known so far out before the election.

I am not saying this is a long-lasting resurgence for McCain, I doubt it is, but it just is a reminder to watch what is going on in the states themselves.

From the Associated Press:

Republican presidential contender John McCain called the Iraq war “a great tragedy” on Thursday, yet still decried a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal as the Senate voted to begin pulling out troops by Oct. 1.
“I’m aware of the patience of the American people. I read the polls. I’m not embarrassed to say that. I understand the frustration and sorrow that American people feel about this war. It’s a great tragedy,” said McCain, who was campaigning in this early voting state and missed the Senate vote on the bill containing the withdrawal timetable.