Barracuda Bandwagon

"New ad slogan: 'Clothes for Gov. Palin? $150,000. Time machine to go back two months to late August and ask what the Hell were Schmidt and Davis thinking when they cooked up this idea and sold it to McCain? Priceless.' "

Of course, as Adam Nagourney notes here, Murphy gave me rare behind-the-scenes access during the 2000 campaign and is not averse to self-promotion. But he's a media analyst now and is supposed to be candid.

Could things have been different if Murphy had worked for Mac instead of NBC and Time? The New Republic's Jason Zengerle ponders:

"What's been most riveting about Murphy's criticism of McCain has been the thread of regret that's run through it. Prior to the denouement this past summer, Murphy was presumably offering these criticisms to McCain in private; the two men were known to talk frequently (much to the consternation of some members of the McCain campaign). But, according to one Murphy friend, Murphy hasn't spoken with McCain since July -- 'either because McCain stopped calling him, or because Schmidt confiscated McCain's cell phone.' So, instead, Murphy seems to be trying to communicate with McCain through his TV appearances and blog posts -- which, as Murphy himself seems to recognize, is a doomed effort. 'My advice, as usual,' he wrote in a long blog post offering McCain some tips before the final debate, 'is probably the opposite of what his people are advising him.' . . .

"Reading and watching Murphy, you get the sense that he'd happily trade the professional accolades for the personal satisfaction of having worked for McCain this one last time."

Look at this latest Obama broadside against the problems that piled up during the Bush years:

"Spending, the conduct of the war in Iraq for years, growth in the size of government, larger than any time since the Great Society, laying a $10 trillion debt on future generations of America, owing $500 billion to China, obviously, failure to both enforce and modernize the [financial] regulatory agencies that were designed for the 1930s and certainly not for the 21st century, failure to address the issue of climate change seriously."

Oh wait -- that's McCain, talking to the Washington Times. Isn't that what Palin accused Biden of, looking backward?

There is one group that doesn't think Obama is a lock:

"Two weeks out, only the Democrats in Washington think Obama might not win," says Tucker Carlson. "That's not the result of a scientific study, but instead the conclusion I've reached after many lunches, dinners and elevator rides with DC Democrats. Against all evidence, a good number of them have convinced themselves that John McCain is going to be the next president.

"Partly this is superstition, like throwing salt over your shoulder when you spill the shaker: predictions are bad luck. But it's also the voice of experience . . .

"Give them a few drinks and many Democrats make remarkably self-loathing noises: we're disorganized, our interest groups are out of control, the rest of the country hates us. To these Democrats, Obama isn't really winning; the Republicans are losing. They fear fate could intervene at the last minute to change the course of the election . . .

"No one's more confident in Republican efficiency than Democrats. It's almost touching, and totally unwarranted. In real life, there are no WMD: Republicans have no master plan for victory, no October Surprise. The operation is as disjointed as it looks."

You mean the October surprise is no surprise? Who knew?