Democrats' war contributions.(Scan: Short news and commentary)

John Kerry offered to make John McCain his running mate on at least seven separate occasions. He even proposed to "expand the role of Vice President to include Secretary of Defense and the overall control of foreign policy" reported Newsweek. McCain told Kerry he was "out of his mind."

Senator McCain had a similar message for Kerry and many other Democrats when he recently gave a speech about the Iraq war at the American Enterprise Institute. Arguing that "success or failure in Iraq is the transcendent issue to our foreign policy--and our national security--for now and years to come," he warned explicitly that if we heed the calls of Cindy Sheehan or Senator Kerry, America will "face consequences of the most serious nature."

McCain also called for "a renewed effort to win the home front. If we can't retain the support of the American people, we will have lost this war as soundly as if our forces were defeated on the battlefield. A renewed effort at home starts with explaining precisely what is at stake in this war--not to alarm Americans, but so that they see the nature of this struggle for what it is."

As for what's at stake: "If we leave Iraq prematurely, the jihadists will interpret the withdrawal as their great victory.... Osama bin Laden and his followers believe that America is weak, unwilling to suffer casualties in battle. They drew that lesson from Lebanon in the 1980s and Somalia in ...