As Good As It Gets

George Will has a terrific lead in his obituary for the McCain campaign:

Time was, the Baltimore Orioles' manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign.

Why will McCain lose?  It's the economy, uhh, silly:

But the McCain-Palin charges have come just as the Obama campaign is benefiting from a mass mailing it is not paying for. Many millions of American households are gingerly opening envelopes containing reports of the third-quarter losses in their 401(k) and other retirement accounts -- telling each household its portion of the nearly $2 trillion that Americans' accounts have recently shed. In this context, the McCain-Palin campaign's attempt to get Americans to focus on Obama's Chicago associations seems surreal -- or, as a British politician once said about criticism he was receiving, "like being savaged by a dead sheep."

That is hard luck for McCain:

After their enjoyable 2006 congressional elections, Democrats eagerly anticipated that 2008 would provide a second election in which a chaotic Iraq would be at the center of voters' minds. Today they are glad that has not happened. The success of the surge in Iraq, for which McCain justly claims much credit, is one reason why foreign policy has receded to the margins of the electorate's mind, thereby diminishing the subject with which McCain is most comfortable and which is Obama's largest vulnerability.

How bad can it get for McCain?

Obama is competitive in so many states that President Bush carried in 2004 -- including Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico -- it is not eccentric to think he could win at least 350 of the 538 electoral votes.

Mr. Will closes with a prayer masked as a hope:

In 1987, on the eve of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's third victory, the head of her Conservative Party told a visiting columnist: "Someday, Labour will win an election. Our job is to hold on until they are sane." Republicans, winners of seven of the past 10 presidential elections, had better hope they have held on long enough.

Just so.  Obama's wrong-headedness on the surge was either disturbingly bad judgment or troubling pandering.  His me-too tough talk on the Russian incursion into Georgia which followed his reflexive recitation of "All we are saying is, give peace a chance" would have been funny if we weren't talking about the next President.

But!  He isn't Hillary, he does a great job delivering a prepared speech, and he has a pleasant baritone and an historic complexion, so it's all good.  We can find out in 2009 and beyond whether he has any ideas at all that weren't stale liberal soporifics ten years ago.

Comments

[Dave]

If there's one political body most at fault in the creation and prolonging of the economic mess we're currently in, most assuredly it's the branch of the government that came under Democrat control 2 years ago, and now the general consensus seems to be that the best solution lies in handing that party the executive branch as well. Ow, my head.

[clarice]

Don't get me started on Will---or Andrew Sullivan. Don't.

[TexasToast]

We haven't won a presidential election since 2000. Sure does feel good.

[matt]

what amazes me is that the polls are still so close and yet it seems there is a mantra that McCain is dead. Fuinny, for a dead campaign, that's pretty damn strong.

Obama used the same ruse against Clinton, and yet it was a virtual tie going into the convention. He coopted and corrupted the caucuses, without which he would have lost the convention, and then Hillary slammed him late in the game.

If McCain wants to win this thing, he has to be John McCain, not the simpering panderer he was in the last debate.

The Dems are now regularly using the race card, and have been doing all they can to pin Fannie/Freddy on the Republicans. Drudge is now reporting up to 5,000,000 fraudulent mortgages to illegal immigrants. How could these loans even have been made if the gates were not thrown wide open By foolish lending practices? The issues are right in front of the republicans, and they need to be smart, savvy and ruthless.

[bgates]

TT, what do you like best about the Pelosi/Reid Congress?

[Don]

"The issues are right in front of the republicans, and they need to be smart, savvy and ruthless."

1 out of 3 ain't that bad.

[Don]

"what do you like best about the Pelosi/Reid Congress"

Tom Delay ain't in it. Next question.

[hrtshpdbox]

"what amazes me is that the polls are still so close and yet it seems there is a mantra that McCain is dead."

Yeah, with Republicans chanting the mantra louder than anyone. It's absurd and for once Zogby is right when it says the election is too close to call. I think McCain felt a town hall setting was the wrong place to "look Obama in the face" and call him a liar with poor judgment; there's no way he'll let that opportunity slip by during the third debate. And there's also no way that there's not going to be some kind of revelation about Obama's crooked (and often anti-American) dealings sprung in the next couple of weeks. It's a little early for Republicans to start moaning about a loss that hasn't happened.

[TexasToast]

TT, what do you like best about the Pelosi/Reid Congress?

The possibility that we might get 60 in the senate and neuter the filibuster.

I have a feeling, just a feeling mind you, that the likely voter screens are not taking into account the explosion of new voter registrations. Dole is in real trouble in NC and even Georgia is "in play" in the senate.

[bgates]

Let me rephrase. What do you like about the Pelosi/Reid Congress to date?

[bgates]

-to the extent that your answer is "nothing that they've done so far, and something that might not happen in the future," I'm inclined to agree with you.

[hrtshpdbox]

"The possibility that we might get 60 in the senate and neuter the filibuster."

Hello, Socialism!

[Barney Frank]

the explosion of new voter registrations

Yes, even beyond the size of the voter pool in some cases.
The DemoRICO party believes in surges, only ones to coopt their fellow citizens rather than their country's enemies.

[Porchjane]

I have a feeling, just a feeling mind you, that the likely voter screens are not taking into account the explosion of new voter registrations. Dole is in real trouble in NC and even Georgia is "in play" in the senate.

Jeez, how many decades have we been hearing about "the explosion of new voter registrations" favoring the Dems? It's like the mythical youth vote.

Hint: the likely voter population and the newly-registered population don't tend to overlap much. This is especially the case if harassment, extortion, bribery, and/or forgery is involved in the registration process.

[Jane Verner]

I don't think McCain is dead, but I sure do think alot of people who invest in the stock market do!

Why was the market down close to 700 points today? People are starting to fear that he will get elected.

And the guy on FOX right now agrees with me.

[Jane M Hanes]

TT:

"The possibility that we might get 60 in the senate and neuter the filibuster."

Then Pelosi & Reid are the perfect power couple for you. When the Democrats took control of Congress two years ago, it turned out their primary objective was trying to make sure that President Bush didn't have a legacy to stand on when he left office. In their spare time, they named Post Offices and earmarked every dollar they could get away with siphoning off for pet projects and supporters, while negotiating sweetheart financial deals for themselves.

I suppose your singular wish list will save you considerable political heartache, but having complained prodigiously about Republican offerings for years, surely you have something better in mind for your filibuster proof Democratic majority to accomplish. It would be ironically fitting, though, if Texas Toast is the one with the big hat and no cattle.

[matt]

Jane;

I think these new registrants are legit this year.

1 - Barack is the first African American in the general election. Everone of African American descent will want to vote for him. Same as the Irish in 1960 for Kennedy.

2 - The kids are all fired up...now if they're too stoned that day, it's another story, but they are fired up.

If Obama is elected, we need to put bodyguards on all of the more conservative Supreme Court Justices immediately. That will be the only bastion left that he can't undermine in 2 years. I figure that after 2 years of a Obama/Pelosi/Reid administration, the country may go permanently Republican or perhaps something new.

[tmac]

Who is George Will and why does he think he is a conservative?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

1 - Barack is the first African American in the general election. Everone of African American descent will want to vote for him. Same as the Irish in 1960 for Kennedy.

We have 3 African Americans for President on the California ballot.

Barack Obama
Cynthia McKinney
Alan Keyes

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Re: McCain

Why was the market down close to 700 points today? People are starting to fear that he will get elected.

And the guy on FOX right now agrees with me.

That must have been a different segment. I heard just the opposite, that the market is scared of an Obama president.

[PD]

Who is George Will and why does he think he is a conservative?

Because David Brooks told him so.

[glasater]

Why was the market down close to 700 points today? People are starting to fear that he will get elected.

Sara--I would submit that the reference was not to McCain but to Zero.
Investors are scared to death of a Zero presidency.

There will be nothing left to tax if he gets into office. So where is he going to get the money he needs for all those wonderful programs he envisions?