There’s a lot of good sense in Michael Gerson’s latest column:
The diverging political fortunes of Barack Obama and McCain can be traced to a single moment. In the middle of September, the net favorable rating for each candidate was about the same. By Oct. 7, Obama was ahead on this measure by about 16 points. Did McCain suddenly become a stumbling failure? No, the world suddenly went into an economic slide. Americans blamed the party with executive power, which is also the party most closely tied in the public mind to bankers and Wall Street. None of this was fair to McCain, who has never been the Wall Street type. But party images are vivid, durable and almost impossible to shift on short notice.
Perhaps no Republican could win this year. But I doubt Gerson would want to deny that as tough as McCain’s circumstances are, he could have maneuvered better within them. The wasted months between McCain’s nomination victory and Obama’s come to mind.