In the Snake Pit

EVERY losing presidential campaign is, to paraphrase Tolstoy, unhappy in its own way. But the McCain campaign in its final days risked descending into political opera buffa. A few days after the election, McCain aides were telling reporters different things about whether longtime McCain foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann had been fired in the campaign’s final week.

Thus was the sad, sloppy end of the McCain campaign. It had punched above its weight in August and into early September. Then the financial crisis hit, and it spent a dreary month and a half slogging toward an almost inevitable defeat made all the more inglorious by the incredible acrimony around vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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EVERY losing presidential campaign is, to paraphrase Tolstoy, unhappy in its own way. But the McCain campaign in its final days risked descending into political opera buffa. A few days after the election, McCain aides were telling reporters different things about whether longtime McCain foreign-policy adviser Randy Scheunemann had been fired in the campaign’s final week.

Thus was the sad, sloppy end of the McCain campaign. It had punched above its weight in August and into early September. Then the financial crisis hit, and it spent a dreary month and a half slogging toward an almost inevitable defeat made all the more inglorious by the incredible acrimony around vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.