Journalists Name 44th President

"The bloody harpooning of the McCain campaign has begun: 'Why didn't they let McCain be McCain?' 'The campaign was all tactics and no strategy.' 'The Palin pick was a disaster.' 'The message was unfocused and campaign poorly executed.' 'Why haven't they produced ads attacking Jeremiah Wright?' 'The campaign isn't positive enough.' 'The campaign isn't negative enough.'

"Of course almost all the shots come from consultants and hacks who didn't get hired, or were fired by the McCain campaign. Or were part of some past presidential campaign in which they still revel in the glory and clink toasts to one another as if they cured the measles. Many of these people, who profess to 'love McCain,' are firing blistering shots at the campaign through the press, which serves only one purpose. And it ain't to help McCain . . .

"Only nine percent of respondents think the country is headed in the right direction . . . So, by this measure, John McCain should be polling at about nine percent. And yet, Schmidt and company ran a good enough campaign that McCain went into the Republican Convention tied. And came out of it ahead. The only real surprise in this race is that it was ever close."

Ex-GOP operative Patrick Ruffini has a similar message for all the finger-pointers:

"There is nothing to be gained by second-guessing the McCain strategy at this point. In ten days, we'll get to have a discussion about where we go next -- about Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, or Eric Cantor . . .

"What is striking about 2008 is how little the campaigns have mattered in comparison to the fundamental nature of the two men running.

"Nothing the McCain campaign did could change the reality of McCain the candidate's poor management instincts and his tendency to fidget around and not stay on message. When the economic crisis hit, this reality flew in the face of the McCain campaign's message of steadiness versus inexperience. Whether by design or the candidate's nature, Obama's caution and deliberation was a living, breathing talking point against the experience card.

"Likewise, I think it will be said that the McCain campaign has yet to really lay a glove on Obama character-wise because Obama himself simply does not project the cloying, insecure, effete tendencies of past nominees like Gore and Kerry, though the only two times he's come close (Wright and bitter/cling) have barely figured in the general election campaign."

At the Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol wants it known that he's going down with the ship, if indeed it is sinking:

"We hope for a McCain-Palin victory, for the sake of the country. And also for the pleasure of seeing the dejection of the mainstream media, the incredulity of the leftwing triumphalists, and the humiliation of the pathetically opportunistic 'conservatives' who've been desperately clambering on board the Obama juggernaut. We're proud to stay off that juggernaut. We're proud, in our modest way, to stand with John McCain and Sarah Palin against it.

"An Obama-Biden administration -- working with a Democratic Congress -- would mean a more debilitating nanny state at home and a weaker nation facing our enemies abroad. We, of course, have confidence that the nation would survive such an interlude, and we would even hope that a President Obama might adjust course from the path he's advertised, especially in foreign policy. But the risk of real damage is great, especially when compared with the prospect of a tough-minded center-right McCain-Palin administration that could lead the country sensibly through these difficult times.

"Reading the endorsements of Obama in the liberal media should strengthen the determination of all believers in American self-government and greatness to fight this election campaign to the end."