The Kristol Prefigure

Bill Kristol is an insufferable fool and wrong about everything, but over and over in this campaign he has flown trial balloons in this column that have inevitably been picked up by John McCain. So if you want to see what's going to happen at the final debate on Wednesday, consider his column today a blueprint.

Of course, the idea that McCain can junk everything with three weeks to go and start over, while people are voting early, and expect the electorate to react favorably, is... well, it's a Bill Kristol idea, so I don't have to tell you how stupid it is. But as much as anything, it's an honor restoration strategy, not really a strategy for winning. They actually started this over the weekend, when Rick Davis responded to John Lewis' comparison between McCain rallies and the ugly race-baiting of George Wallace by saying, oh yeah, well John McCain was a POW. Which suggests a return to the wounded warrior status, the "how dare they attack me" backlash strategy.

Not that McCain isn't OK with a little comparison of Obama to a terrorist. I mean, he's only human.

...And sure enough, here comes the McCain reboot. Bill Kristol is a genius! In the same way that the guy holding the puppet strings knows exactly where the marionette is going to go!