McCain's decision to try to grab the momentum by tying Obama to Franklin Raines and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac didn't seem to work, and now he's hoisted by his own petard. What a dumbass. He's going to say that Obama gets advice from Raines while his friggin' campaign manager is lobbying for them?
The "grab every news cycle" has now backfired, because this is a big story and McCain's going to be playing defense for a few news cycles now. Because now it's looking like influence peddling, which is even worse. I bet McCain's regretting hiring all those lobbyists he said he wouldn't hire at the beginning of the campaign.
McCain couldn't just lose more or less honorably, a la Bob Dole. He had to aggressively alienate all of his media admirers, tarnish his credentials on everything from personal honor to reform, pick a horribly unqualified running mate (in a totally sexist manner, may I add) and flip-flop like crazy on the way to further tarnishing the GOP brand permanently. Where does the GOP go after McCain (likely) loses? They'll have to start from scratch. And McCain will have nothing to show for it.
How fitting that McCain succeeded Barry Goldwater in the Senate, because they make for effective bookends for the conservative era. In the beginning, there was Goldwater: personally honest and decent, with clear ideas and vision--a voice in the wilderness. And then there's McCain, a self-involved liar who coasted into the nomination like he's coasted into everything in politics and offers no vision, no ideas, and only tired culture war rhetoric to distract from the joke the GOP has become.
