McCain's Fatal Electile Dysfunction

Howard Wolfson, blogging at The New Republic, says it's over for John McCain:

An election dominated at its inception by the war in Iraq is now overwhelmingly focused on the economy. More than half of voters in polls say that the economy is their top concern and Senator Obama enjoys double digit leads among voters asked who can better fix our economic mess. Put simply, there is no way Senator McCain can win if he continues to trail Senator Obama by double digits on the top concern of more than half of voters.

State polls are beginning to reflect this. If the election were tomorrow, Obama would win all of the states John Kerry carried and add Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, Nevada, Ohio and Florida. Barack Obama is campaigning in Indiana, which last went for a Democrat in 1964 and North Carolina, which has gone for a Democrat only once in thirty-four years. At the same time John McCain has pulled out of Michigan and Sarah Palin has been forced to visit Nebraska.

All McCain can do now is try to salvage his reputation, so badly tarnished by the kind of campaign he has run to this point. Perhaps we saw the first sign of his recognition of this reality last night, when he failed to press home the Ayers-Wright crap that Sarah Palin has been trying to sell.

If he's lucky, people will still think of him as a war hero when this is over, rather than as a grouchy old man who ran a loathsome and dishonest campaign for the presidency.

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