McCain's fervent support of the troop increase will only hurt him unless something drastic changes.
Actually, I think it might not. Honestly, what else is there to do? The status quo, or try to help the situation by adding more troops?
LA Times/Blooomberg says withdrawing soon is the preference of the majority of Americans (and this is backed up by Newsweek):
Withdraw Right Away: 19%
Withdraw Within a Year: 46%
Stay However Long: 30%
Unsure: 5%
In other words, by far the most popular solution is to reduce troop numbers drastically over the next year and leave Iraq to Iran (which, frankly, is what's happening with us there anyway, just in slightly slower and bloodier motion).
This is the position advocated by pretty much every politician opposed to the escalation at this point; no one support the status quo since it's obviously not working.
McCain probably will not be hurt much by supporting the escalation in the primary; most Republicans support the escalation, and most who are opposed would support Giuliani over McCain (or any other Republican; they're Giuliani's 5-10% base) anyway.
