I'm starting to get dangerously optimistic about November.

Whatever you think about Senator John McCain, personally or politically, you have to admit that he's starting to look like a winner:

After clinching the nomination, McCain fielded the endorsement Wednesday from President Bush and met with Republican National Committee leadership to talk strategy for November.

He was essentially laying claim to the entire force of the Republican Party apparatus — from fundraising lists and get-out-the-vote programs to Cabinet officials and the power of the presidency itself.

Bush, who faces low approval ratings, said he’d campaign with McCain only when asked. “Whatever he wants me to do, I want him to win,” Bush said.

Although Bush might not be politically popular enough to do much campaigning, receiving President Bush's glowing seal of electoral approval is certainly going to be worth a lot in terms of fundraising and connections to McCain. The closing of the party ranks doesn't stop there either:

Regardless, McCain enjoys what the fractured Democrats don’t have — strength in unity. GOP House and Senate leaders emerged from a meeting with Bush to give McCain a plug of their own Wednesday.

“I think our party is completely unified behind Senator McCain,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said, dismissing continued fissures in the GOP’s base over McCain’s candidacy.

“Time heals all wounds,” House Minority Leader John Boehner added of disgruntled conservatives. “They’ll be coming home. Just give them a little time.”

McConnel and Boehner have spent the last 14 months leading Republicans, and running circles around the clown Congress of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. If McConnel and Boehner are willing to put their laboriously earned political capital behind McCain's candidacy, this would be a strong incentive for conservatives who want Republican majorities in Congress to endorse McCain.