The Fat Lady Has Sung

“Just you wait, until Wednesday. After I have whupped his ‘you know what’, we are gonna turn this thing around.” 

Well, the old codger certainly has gumption, and I’m hearing that “the Senator is at his best when his back is up against the wall.” And this, “Now he’s got Obama just where he wanted him.”

Indeed, he does, in the lead. I am reminded of the lady who starts the McCain ad, with “Who is Barack Obama?” I almost always retort, “The next President of the United States, that is who he is.” The Contrarian is getting a bit tired of that by the way, but everything is sure looking perfectly set for a landslide.

Now, I say that among friends, of course, you folks. This is no time to let up at all, anywhere. It’s full bore ahead, all cylinders pumping. Not until that declaration by the media and that phone call from the angry old man will I relent in pushing the ticket. But, honestly, the signs are everywhere that this is simply OVER.

The internals in the polls tell the story. Forget about the actual polls, which are all good by the way. Look inside. The Contrarian pores over them nightly, and he reports that things are solidifying in a way that would seem set in stone. Ninety percent of the public thinks the country is going in the wrong direction. That is a damning number. Seventy-three percent believe Bush is a disaster as president. That too is damning.

Worse, yet, McCain’s internals are ugly. There is only a seven point difference between his favorables and unfavorables. His unfavorables are over 40%, and they used to chortle that Hillary’s, which were in the low 30′s would doom her candidacy. Meanwhile, Obama’s favorable/nonfavorable ratings have a 20 point split. This is important, because while favorables don’t mean that people will vote for you, unfavorables certainly do mean they won’t.

McCain has had to publically chastise his supporters for their ugly rhetoric. He was forced to admonish one woman that indeed Obama was no Arab, and another gentleman was told that “you don’t need to be afraid of Obama being president.” I’ll take the endorsement Senator! This is the result of going ugly, and encouraging the redneck racists among us.

We hear that there is dissension between the McCain and Palin operatives. Palin apparently is in her element. She likes this red meat approach. McCain has proven not to have the stomach for it in the end, as so many are publicly telling him that his reputation is being lost here. McCain seems intent now on at least salvaging that from this disaster that is his  campaign. And after all, as McCain proves again and again, it’s all about him.

Palin was, so the story goes, soundly, and I do mean soundly, booed at her Hockey Mom moment, dropping the puck at the Flyers last game. Even trotting out her poor daughter did nothing to quell the roar of negativity, even though the music was played as loud as it apparently could go. The chorus of boos and down-turned thumbs was so egregious that even Fox was forced to admit it happened.

This followed on the heels of the report on Troopergate, which of course found the Governor guilty of impropriety in pushing the firing of her ex-brother-in-law. Much as they try to spin it otherwise, the media has made it most clear that she was ethically wanting in her behavior. This story, once expected to loom large as somebody’s argument, is minor now in comparison to the bigger picture.

Worst of all, it seems the RNC is pulling out of its joint ads with McCain. They are ready, so we hear, to devote all resources now to trying to save what seats in the House and Senate that they can. This of course, is the worst possible thing for the McCain team to have leak out. In fact, some are urging the Senator to use what money he has left to support state campaigns for the lower ticket, rather than pour money down the proverbial rat hole. His campaign is doing just that poorly.

One really begins to wonder what has happened. Conspiracy theories are coming to mind. Remember long ago I reported that there was a theory that this was a Rovian/Bush plot to punish John for his straying from the reservation. I still doubt the efficacy of that, but well, it’s hard to understand how a campaign could have been run worse than this one. Nobody is ever on the same page, about anything.

Palin has been left out the loop on significant policy decisions, and she seems in open disagreement  on others. McCain’s message for weeks now has been a scatter gun approach of first this, and then that, much of it contradictory, when not incomprehensible. McCain has painted himself into a corner by attacking Obama’s character in vicious ways though his surrogates, and now being forced to defend Obama against those attacks. He has promised alternately to his “supporters” who are nothing much now but rabid crazies, that he will, and he won’t attack on Wednesday.

Speaking of Palin, the numbers suggest she is a definite drag on the ticket now, playing only to the small percentage of wingnuts who have flags on their trucks and sport rifle racks. When reporters interview them, they spew the obvious vitriolic vomit of racism, culturalism, fundamentalism, and a boatload of other right wing isms. Yet Palin apparently is mesmerized by the spotlight, and thinks more is better. Her judgment of course is not worth a bucket of warm **** as they say.

I can but sit and salivate. I can think of no thing I more relish at this point than the set of “Inside the McCain Campaign” books that will assault the bookstores within months of this debacle. I can but chortle in amusement as the finger pointing begins. McCain, no doubt will take the high road and blame everything on Bush and the economy. Privately he will threaten the very life of the idiot who first suggested that they take another look at the Governor from Alaska. Rove will tut tut that they took his “advise” too far, and thus he bears no responsibility whatsoever. I doubt anyone will fall on their sword. Somebody in the McCain campaign forgot the “Campaigns for Dummies” book, and and instead ran films of the Keystone Cops.

There are few times in a one’s life, I suspect when one can sit back and watch the circus, thankful that at last the world has arighted itself and sanity has returned. This I believe is one of those moments. Relish it my friends readers, savor it, and do yourself a favor and memorialize it as best you can. I doubt you will see this kind of brutal self annihilation of a campaign in your lifetime again.