Epitaph for a Maverick

Joe Klien pens taps out the epitaph for John Dubya McCain's presidential campaign....

The Democrats who got themselves elected President during most of my career were those most successful at playing defense... And so the first reaction of more than a few talking heads last night was that McCain had done better, maybe even won, because he had made those arguments [against liberalism] more successfully than he had in the first two debates. I disagreed, even before the focus groups and snap polls rendered their verdict: I thought McCain was near-incomprehensible when talking about policy, locked in the coffin of conservative thinking and punditry. He spoke in Reagan-era shorthand. He thought that merely invoking the magic words "spread the wealth" and "class warfare" he could neutralize Obama.
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The point is, this is a very good year to be Senator Government. Ronald Reagan used to say that the most frightening nine words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." That is no longer true. This year, the most frightening eight words are "I'm John McCain and I approved this message."