Nice distillation of McCain’s campaign from John:

None of this matters a whit when you have no message, and that is the unenviable position the Republicans are in right now. What is John McCain’s core message? I will tell you, as it is very simple- “Not Obama.” That is it. That is the sum total of the message. He and the Wasilla Wingnut have done nothing for the past two months but provide weak and ugly reasons why you should not vote for Obama, starting with the sneer de force at the RNC and continuing on to the present, where we learn that we should not vote for Obama because some plumber (but not really) is worried about socialism and because Obama knows a guy named Khalidi who does not agree with everything Bill Kristol says about Israel.

Roger Simon at Politico reports that McCain’s people are already focusing on a scapegoat for Tuesday’s impending defeat — Sarah Palin.

John McCain’s campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

Yes, she is a disaster. And yes, she has turned out to be a drag on the campaign rather than a magnet for disaffected Hillary supporters. But, as Simon points out, McCain picked this catastrophe.

So as scapegoats go, she’s not a very good one.

Because the fault for McCain lies not in the stars, but in himself.

Per Talking Points Memo:

John McCain’s Pennsylvania communications director told reporters in the state an incendiary version of the hoax story about the attack on a McCain volunteer well before the facts of the case were known or established — and even told reporters outright that the “B” carved into the victim’s cheek stood for “Barack,” according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions.

John Verrilli, the news director for KDKA in Pittsburgh, told TPM Election Central that McCain’s Pennsylvania campaign communications director gave one of his reporters a detailed version of the attack that included a claim that the alleged attacker said, “You’re with the McCain campaign? I’m going to teach you a lesson.”

Verrilli also told TPM that the McCain spokesperson had claimed that the “B” stood for Barack. According to Verrilli, the spokesperson also told KDKA that Sarah Palin had called the victim of the alleged attack, who has since admitted the story was a hoax.

This is a new low in scumbaggery, for an already scummy McCain campaign. When did making up bullshit and trying to blame a fabricated racial attack on your political opponent become Mavericky?

And just yesterday, McCain accused Obama of saying anything to get elected.

Per the Associated Press: McCain says Obama will ’say anything’ to win

Republican John McCain, taking a cross-state bus tour aimed at keeping vote-rich Florida from swinging to the Democrats, on Thursday accused rival Barack Obama of saying “anything to get elected.”

You mean like making crazy statements about ACORN stealing the vote for the GOP and McCain palling around with terrorists? Like claiming his clueless Vice President Candidate who doesn’t know what the Vice President does or what constitutes the Bush Doctrine is ready to be President? Like suspending his campaign to save the world and claiming credit for passing a finance bill that doesn’t pass, only to later claim he killed it? Like telling Dave Letterman he has to cancel his appearance to return immediately to Washington, then going to an interview with Katie Couric — which Letterman can see via internal feed?

What next? Maybe McCain can accuse Obama of being a rich elitist with 8 mansions and a beer heiress wife? Or complain about how Obama grimaces and grunts while he’s speaking during a debate? Or rudely refers to his opponent as “that one!”

Or maybe McCain will call just Obama short, old, and ill-tempered.

Anything can happen once a candidate crosses the rubicon of batshit-crazy.

During a conference call today, Politico’s Ben Smith reports that McCain Campaign Manager/fannie mae cashbox/revisionist historian Rick Davis made the following claim:

McCain campaign manager Rick Davis also credited McCain with “blowing … up” the first bailout package when he suspended his campaign to come to Washington, something McCain’s campaign had heatedly denied at the time.

Davis expressed outrage that, “in the middle of the greatest disaster in our financial system that we’d had in our lifetime, that the Democrats in the United States Senate would actually link payments to ACORN in the bailout package that they promoted — prior to Sen. McCain coming to town and actually blowing that package up. So we can actually say that in addition to saving taxpayers millions of dollars, and we’re very happy that no more taxpayer dollars were added to the pile of money going to ACORN.”

Which is interesting because, as Smith points out, at the time McCain blamed Obama for the failure of that bailout package — but only after claiming credit for providing the leadership to forge the bipartisan compromise to make the deal, in advance of its failure.

So, at the time, he claimed to have brokered the deal and blamed Obama for its failure; now he claims he torpedoed the bailout and takes credit for its failure.

What a maverick.

John Cole, writing about John McCain’s descent into nasty gutter politics:

John McCain may have bear-hugged George Bush in the past, now he is passionately tongue-kissing Karl Rove.

Is how McCain came off in spots.

The “that one” remark:

Here’s a focus group on CBS giving its reaction to Sen. McAngry:

And then, at the end of the debate, McCain refuses to shake hands with his fellow United States Senator “that one”:

Observation: There is a significant creep factor when John McCain whispers “my friends” through clenched teeth. It’s just not “friendly” at all. It also reminds me of Nixon saying, “my fellow Americans.” You just know he doesn’t mean it, as the word “friend” is commonly defined.

It seems the bloom is off the Palin rose:

With the vice presidential candidates set to square off today in their only scheduled debate, public assessments of Sarah Palin’s readiness have plummeted, and she may now be a drag on the Republican ticket among key voter groups, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Tonight’s heavily anticipated debate comes just five weeks after the popular Alaska governor entered the national spotlight as Sen. John McCain’s surprise pick to be his running mate. Though she initially transformed the race with her energizing presence and a fiery convention speech, Palin is now a much less positive force: Six in 10 voters see her as lacking the experience to be an effective president, and a third are now less likely to vote for McCain because of her.

Just the other day, with the kind of foresight that led him to declare the economy “fundamentally sound” just before a market collapse, McCain insisted “I think the American people have overwhelmingly shown their approval” for Palin, excepting the “Georgetown cocktail party” circuit.

Either McCain is once again badly out of touch or the Georgetown party circuit has become rather vast.

John McCain, recovered from Friday night’s anger-fest, lashes out at Obama:

In his first public appearance since Friday night’s debate, McCain said Democrat Barack Obama advocates tax-and-spend policies that “will deepen our recession,” and voted against funding for equipment needed by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just 12 days ago, McCain maintained that the fundamentals of our economy were sound, and denied that we were anywhere near a recession. If he had clue one about economics, or was even capable of truthfully recounting Obama’s proposals, he might have a little more credibility.

In the early days of the economic crisis, McCain seemed uncertain how to react. His first response was to say the fundamentals of the economy were strong. Then he backtracked, saying the workers form the foundation of the economy and they are strong. Then he called for a blue-ribbon commission to study the root causes of the debacle on Wall Street. Then he called for the ouster of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, with each shift drawing ridicule from Obama.

But now he’s back to basics: lying about Obama’s tax proposal and claiming Obama’s economic proposals, which he doesn’t understand, will make the recession, which he not only doesn’t understand, but which up until recently he didn’t believe existed, worse.

But we can trust him because, you know, he’s so maverick-y. Or so he keeps on telling us.