When I first saw McCain’s “complete the danged fence” ad, I thought it had to be a joke. So brazen a flip-flop seemed improbable from Mr. Straight-Talk Express — his transparently insincere contortions on immigration during the 2008 campaign suggested it was hard for McCain to engage in Specter-esque lying. After all, he told Vanity Fair just three years ago that, “By the way, I think the fence is least effective. But I’ll build the goddamned fence if they want it.”

But he apparently is serious. Auster tries to figure out the ad:

Either it is a conscious reference to his 2008 “build the damned fence” comment, in which case the ad is an expression of multi-leveled, post-modern irony, mocking anyone stupid enough to believe McCain’s newly re-minted persona as tough-talking border guard; or McCain has no memory of his “build the damned fence” comment and is simply lost in his own lies, in which case the person being inadvertently mocked by the ad is McCain himself.

It’s pretty obviously the latter — see Joe Scarborough, John Shadegg, and others unable to contain their laughter after watching the ad. I don’t know if there’s been a Downfall parody of the ad yet, but there is a Star Wars one.

I don’t write the editorials, and I’m a firm believer is letting a hundred flowers bloom and all that, but I disagree with NR’s endorsement of McCain in the new issue of the magazine. Sure, a blustering sportscaster wouldn’t be the ideal senator, but a body that includes Lindsey Graham, Arlen Specter, Harry Reid, and Al Franken is in no position to say that J. D. Hayworth somehow doesn’t measure up. Retiring John McCain — even if his replacement was a cashier from Trader Joe’s — would be an important act of lustration. Unfortunately, his likely reelection demonstrates that, while you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, you can come close enough for government work.