The Des Moines Register has endorsed McCain and Clinton, and the Boston Globe has endorsed McCain and Obama. (Hat tip: InstaPundit.)

I’d love to see McCain pull an upset in one or both states. But I wonder whether these endorsements will actually help him, given conservative attitudes toward the MSM. Reading the editorials, it’s fairly clear they’re written from a liberal worldview. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that, but I doubt it will sway too many Republican primary and caucus voters.

Of course, independents can vote in New Hampshire, and were largely responsible for McCain’s upset win there in 2000. But the newfound closeness of the Clinton-Obama race makes it much harder for him this year, because more independents will presumably do what Sally Eneguess is doing and vote in the Democratic primary.

In other news, Volokh Conspiracy’s Ilya Somin has some harsh words for Mike Huckabee: “One big government conservative administration in the 21st century is more than enough.” Ouch. That hurts. Though it’s not as bad as having your foreign policy called “Carteresque” — by conservatives. (Hat tip, again: InstaPundit.)

UPDATE: Finally, an explanation for Huckabee’s meteoric rise: Chuck Norris!

UPDATE 2: Richelieu at the Weekly Standard writes:

McCain is rising in New Hampshire polls, and savvy on the ground observers there tell me McCain’s campaign is catching fire. I still think McCain should have rolled the dice and committed TV money to Iowa to beat Rudy and Fred there and nab a third place finish, which would rocket him into New Hampshire as the big surprise Iowa winner. But if the Mitt vs. Huck tussle damages both, McCain could still potentially upset the field in New Hampshire and then be off to the races. McCain’s great advantage is that, unlike Huckabee and Romney, his numbers are deep and rock solid. You either like him or you don’t. So he enters the chaos of the post-Iowa period with a tough knot of real support in New Hampshire, which is not a bad secondary hand to play in a chaotic situation.