Take cover, this implosion's going to be an epic one! According to several news reports this evening, the New York Times Sunday magazine will print an article this weekend featuring numerous anonymous recriminations and back-stabs between McCain staffers.
The Politico foreshadows:
With despair rising even among many of John McCain’s own advisors, influential Republicans inside and outside his campaign are engaged in an intense round of blame-casting and rear-covering—-much of it virtually conceding that an Election Day rout is likely.
Wooohoooo! The McCain campaign has begun its post-postmortem a few weeks early, and they've invited the Gray Lady, of Georgetown Cocktail Circuit fame, to take minutes!
Some cable news correspondents tonight even made allusions to Sarah Palin joining into the fray by undermining McCain's message (e.g. contesting Michigan, robocall double-talk). One speculated on whether she's gearing up for her own 2012 run (sound familiar?).
Per Politico, the following are some graphic signs of the bus runneth over:
At his Northern Virginia headquarters, some McCain aides are already speaking of the campaign in the past tense. Morale, even among some of the heartiest and most loyal staffers, has plummeted. And many past and current McCain advisors are warring with each other over who led the candidate astray.
"It’s not an extraordinarily happy place to be right now," said one senior McCain aide. "I’m not gonna lie. It’s just unfortunate."
"If you really want to see what ‘going negative’ is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we’re starting to see," said Mark McKinnon,
You have half of the campaign saying Ayers is a major issue, and then the candidate out there saying he doesn’t care about a washed up terrorist. You have McCain one day echoing Milton Friedman and the next day echoing FDR."
The Politico article goes on to note the unusual nature of holding a circular firing squad this early. Traditionally, losers wait until after the election to open collective fire.
The Washington Post reports on the magnitude of the McCain's daunting uphill climb, which is undoubtedly the catalyst behind this inter-campaign trainwreck that's about to go public.
Although McCain has tried:
- Stroll through Baghdad market
- Paris Hilton
- Supermarket gate (see beabea's comment for the gory video)
- Everyone's Georgians
- Drill-baby-drill
- Sarah Palin
- Fundamentals are Strong
- Suspend the Campaign
- Joe-the-Plumber
- Joe-the-$150K-Fashionista
10.-16. The half-dozen other gambits I left out
This has been his payoff:
The numbers are startling. Obama leads by 12 points in Ohio, 11 in Pennsylvania and 13 in Wisconsin. In Michigan, where McCain's campaign has pulled out, Obama's lead is 22 points. In Indiana, a strong red state, his lead is 10 points, larger than in other recent polls.
Quinnipiac University also released polls yesterday from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida that show Obama leading in all three. In these surveys, his lead in Pennsylvania is 13 points. In Ohio, which is a must-win for McCain, Obama's lead is 14 points.
Here's a preview to the NYT Sunday Mag article courtesy Enzo Valenzetti in the comments