Journalists Name 44th President

Now we've gone beyond predicting defeat for McCain to predicting bad things in the Obama administration.

The usual post-election chatter -- who's getting what job? -- is fully underway, as we see in this Politico piece:

"No subject is more avidly considered in the corridors of Democratic power than the future role of his chief adviser, political consultant David Axelrod. Democrats who know the Chicago-based political consultant, the key architect of Obama's campaign and of his public image, say Axelrod has signaled that he'll seriously consider taking on a job in the administration.

"That decision would be a central choice in shaping an Obama White House, and determining the relationship between his style of governance and political strategy. 'I think he'll do it,' said James Carville, Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign manager, who never joined that administration."

Marc Ambinder even has a job-by-job rundown for the president who hasn't been elected yet.

More on Palin supposedly going rogue, from the New Republic's Eve Fairbanks:

"Palin's Tampa rally Sunday kicked off with an extended, sarcastic, eye-rolling diss at the $150,000 wardrobe supposedly foisted on her by others, particularly -- and this is important -- the evil RNC. 'I grabbed a jacket this morning -- my own jacket,' she told the whooping crowd. 'Away from the filter of the media, I get to tell you the whole clothes thing. Those clothes, they are not my property. They're like the lighting and the stage, like everything else the RNC purchased.' She then went on to proudly show off her earrings from First Dude Todd's Eskimo mom and '$35 wedding ring from Hawaii that I bought myself.'

"On the one hand, the 'evil bureaucratic RNC made her do it' storyline is probably the least damaging way Team McCain can finesse the Palin wardrobe debacle, so it's not altogether a digression that only benefits Palin and not McCain.

"But you can see Palin's post-November-4 narrative beginning to take shape: The Republican party structure is irretrievably broken, as evidenced by the '08 blowout and poignantly symbolized by the RNC's wasteful, politically tone-deaf Neiman Marcus shopping spree. But Palin, the breath of fresh air from Alaska, rolls her eyes at the old rules, disdains all the ossified ways of doing things, etc. etc."

Sean Hannity didn't ask about that last night in his fourth interview with Palin, and her daughter, on the trail, plus Sarah cheerleader Elizabeth Hasselback.

Would McCain be in better shape if he hadn't picked Palin? Adam Nagourney concludes the answer is yes.

The L.A. Times ran a story last April about a 2003 party at which Obama said nice things about Palestinian rights advocate and Israel critic Rashid Khalidi, who he said reminds him "of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table [but around] this entire world."