by Evie Stone

Happy Friday! Well, not in Japan. But here in DC we kicked off the day with a gorgeous sunrise (almost makes waking up in the dark worthwhile).

Politico reports on an almost Democratic-level display of defeatism and self-immolation among Republicans. The piece follows yesterday's trashing of the Bush administration by John McCain in a Washington Times interview published yesterday and the bevy of McCain advisers talking out of school (and not-for-attribution) about tactics in a campaign profile in the upcoming NYT magazine. Politico's Jonathan Martin, Mike Allen, and John F. Harris provide these telling nuggets:

"If you really want to see what 'going negative' is in politics, just watch the back-stabbing and blame game that we're starting to see," said Mark McKinnon, the ad man who left the campaign after McCain wrapped up the GOP primary. "And there's one common theme: Everyone who wasn't part of the campaign could have done better."

"The cake is baked," agreed a former McCain strategist. "We're entering the finger-pointing and positioning-for-history part of the campaign. It's every man for himself now."

 

Relatedly, former Massachusetts Gov (and Mitt Romney supporter) Bill Weld has grabbed an oar in the boat fellow-Republicans Colin Powell, Ken Adelman, and Scott McClellan are hastily rowing towards Barack Obama. The turncoats draw the scorn of Charles Krauthammer, who says he'll "have no truck with the phony case ginned up to rationalize voting for the most liberal and inexperienced presidential nominee in living memory," adding, "I shall have no part of this motley crew. I will go down with the McCain ship. I'd rather lose an election than lose my bearings." Elsewhere on the WP op-ed page, Krauthammer's colleague E.J. Dionne can barely contain his glee at the GOP infighting.

But (to egregiously mix the previous paragraph's metaphor) should these guys really be shoveling the dirt on the McCain campaign coffin already? The election is still 11 days away, it's still October, and there is still room for surprises and x-factors a-plenty — including a healthy percentage of still-undecided voters and persistent question marks about who will actually turn out to vote. (A recent AP poll had a 10-point Obama advantage among "registered voters," but only put the Democratic nominee up by one among "likely voters.") Maybe everyone should lay off the pre-post-morteming for a second and keep fighting this one out. As Peggy Noonan declares this morning,

What if Mr. Obama underperforms on Election Day, just as he did in the final primaries with Hillary Clinton? What if senior citizens turn out in record numbers and vote for the older guy, and the financial crisis seems to fade, and Mr. McCain finds new grounding on the issue of taxes, and the Obama campaign undermines itself with premature triumphalism...

McCain is, after all, sort of famous for succeeding against unlikely odds — and the NYT's Adam Nagourney explains this morning how exactly he might pull off a win. Today, with Obama temporarily off the trail, the McCain campaign is on the offensive with a tough national-security ad using Biden's "generated crisis" remarks. And the WSJ reports that McCain is launching a new attack saying Obama's tax policies would harm families with special needs kids.

And finally, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has won his chance to run for a third term. Yesterday the City Council narrowly voted to extend term limits in city government, overturning the two-term limit that New York voters have twice approved by referendum and — according to recent polls — still overwhelmingly favor. Bloomberg, who currently enjoys approval ratings in the 70s, says the city needs his CEO experience in this time of financial crisis. At least two lawsuits have already been filed challenging the City Council's jurisdiction in the matter. But if the suits fail, the people of New York will still have the opportunity to reject the power-grab if they so choose by voting Bloomberg out of office next fall.

Oh, and by the way, you will be shocked — SHOCKED, I SAY! — to hear that the New York Times endorsed Obama this morning.