Position isn't everything, it's the only thing

Without meaning to sound too much like Mickey Kaus, it's remarkable that the New York Times' Adam Nagourney can write an entire article on the dynamics of being a presidential primary campaign frontrunner without mentioning the actual policy positions, let alone the tactics, of the mentioned candidates.

Thus what we get instead is a It's Good to be the Frontrunner, Except When It's Not analysis, which has nothing to say about its supposed hook to the current race in the difficulties of John McCain -- those being hard to discuss without mentioning his uneasy relationship to George W. Bush, his base, and the spectacle this presents to the wider public: someone more in favour of Bush's project in Iraq than Bush himself is, but who always pulls back from a decisive rupture from Bush when the opportunity presents. That's more complicated than just having once been the presumptive winner of the race.