Senator John McCain has launched his preliminary run for President, officially kicking off the 2008 Presidential race. A quick wrap-up of McCain news after the jump.

The Associated Press reports that McCain will begin seriously gearing up as early as next week:

Sen. John McCain, considered the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, intends to launch an exploratory committee next week, GOP officials said Friday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a public statement from the four-term Arizona senator.

The New York Times has McCain adviser John Weaver on the record promising a decision soon enough:

“There’s not going to be a formal announcement this year,” John Weaver, an adviser to Mr. McCain, said. The senator, who appears at or near the top of public opinion surveys about who should run for higher office, will wait until the Christmas holidays, when his children are home, to make a final decision, Mr. Weaver said.

And ABC News gets McCain on the record talking about the big political wild-card these days -- that is, independents, who voted overwhelmingly for Democrats in Tuesday's election:

Despite Republican losses of the House and Senate, McCain sees encouraging signs for his personal quest.

Independent voters were the key swing voters in this election, going overwhelmingly for Democrats. And that could be a voting pool he would tap into.

"No question. I think voters said they want independence, they want bipartisanship, and they want a voice of moral authority on Iraq, and John McCain is all three," said former Bush adviser Mark McKinnon, who worked on the 2004 campaign.

"I've always been popular with independents," McCain said. "But I don't know [how] independents feel right now from what I see they are kind of unhappy."

Republicans will want to focus on winning them back, and according to polls, McCain is more popular with them than he is with conservative Republicans.

About those independents: McCain is a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, the most important political issue of the moment. But according to exit polls, six in ten independents support withdrawing some or all troops from Iraq. So, yes, independents are "kind of unhappy," as McCain puts it, and it remains to be seen if independents will perceive McCain to be a "voice of moral authority" on Iraq.