At long last, a reason to root for the Only Man Who Can Save America.

GOP presidential candidate John McCain is deeply worried that his resurgent national campaign may be stalled by a relatively strong showing in tonight’s Iowa caucuses by the iconoclastic Ron Paul.

The Arizona senator’s campaign told the HuffPost that their candidate is concerned that Paul will finish third behind front-runners Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney…

“Ron Paul’s like the Joker in a poker game,” said one McCain staffer. Paul reportedly dropped three mailers overnight and kicked his phone banks into turbo-mode in an all-out push to make into the final tier of tonight’s winners…

As Paul greeted his volunteers this morning at his downtown headquarters, the HuffPost asked for the candidate’s reaction to McCain’s anger: “I’m so excited. I’m excited he’s so upset about me.”

The Reuters/Zogby poll puts them all even at 10 apiece although McCain leads by 3-5 points in most others. A surprise from the Paulnut tonight could torpedo two candidacies, in fact — Fred’s, by knocking him back to fourth or even fifth, and Maverick’s, by killing the McCain resurrection meme in its crib and having him limp off to New Hampshire smelling like a loser, where he’ll have to compete with Paul again for that state’s famously quirky independents. If Mitt surprises Huck and this tool sneaks into third, Team Romney is suddenly in very, very good position for the nomination.

To what will Paul owe the result if it happens? Air power, baby. Victory through air power.

Yes, really.