It's a wonder to anybody -- even McCain supporters -- how the Republican presidential candidate has been able to hang on this long. His allegiance to the old guard was bad enough but the laughable response to the economic crisis was really damning. So what the eff is going on? Today's buzz: McCain is winning over the masses big time.
- The McCain campaign should've ended last week but Obama couldn't seal the deal, writes Christopher Hitchens in Slate. Take-away: "[H]e is too nice, too innocent, too honest and too decent to get down in the arena and trade bloody thrusts with the right-wing enemy."
- The Wall Street Journal agrees -- at least with the part about McCain torpedoing his own campaign. The Journal writes that Sarah Palin has been McCain's saving grace, and without her, Paris Hilton may have been the last female to go on record about the Republican candidate's bid for the presidency. Take-away: "Mrs. Palin channels hope and good cheer into a running mate who badly needs it."
- Sarah Palin isn't who she appears to be, writes David Talbot in Salon. When she's not busy lauding the merits of hockey or stuffing her face with moose burgers, she's making calculated political moves against her former patrons. Take-away: "[T]his pattern -- exploiting 'old boy' mentors and then turning against them for her own advantage -- defines Sarah Palin's rise to power."
- McCain is acting like a flustered rookie in the midst of this financial crisis, writes George F. Will in the WaPo. Take-away: "Unreadiness can be corrected, although at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?"
- Democrats who say that anyone who doesn't favor Obama is a racist are full of it, writes Jonah Golberg of the National Review. Take-away: "[The] press corp that defines 'racist' as shorthand for Republican and sees itself as the publicity arm of the Obama campaign."
