I wonder if McCain wants a do-over

First, we have Kathleen Parker, conservative columnist of the Washington Post and National Review, checking in today with her view that the single most important decision of John McCain's life was made while thinking with his dick rather than his brain. No, I'm not making that up. She says it somewhat less crudely, but nonetheless that is the entire point of her column today in the Washington Post. See for yourself.

Parker borrows somewhat from the fascinating blockbuster behind-the-scenes article on the McCain campaign appearing this week in the NYT's Sunday Magazine. Here's how she begins her characterization:

McCain didn't know her. He didn't vet her. His campaign team had barely an impression. In a bar one night, [Robert] Draper asked one of McCain's senior advisers: "Leaving aside her actual experience, do you know how informed Governor Palin is about the issues of the day?" The adviser thought a moment and replied: "No, I don't know."

Blame the sycamore tree.

McCain had met Palin only once -- in February, at the governors' convention in Washington -- before the day he selected her as his running mate. The second time was at his Sedona, Ariz., ranch on Aug. 28, just four days before the GOP convention.

As Draper tells it, McCain took Palin to his favorite coffee-drinking spot down by a creek and a sycamore tree. They talked for more than an hour, and, as Napoleon whispered to Josephine, "Voilà."

One does not have to be a psychoanalyst to reckon that McCain was smitten.

And it only goes downhill from there, with Parker essentially saying that McCain had a hard-on for Palin and couldn't resist the idea of having such an attractive woman follow him around the country and sing his praises day after day.

Which brings us to this: New York Times endorses Obama. Money quote:

Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.

That, my friends, is, as Mickey Knox might say, a harsh indictment.

I completely agree, of course. Foisting (or, attempting to foist?) Sarah Palin on the public was bad enough to soil everything he has done in his entire political career. This is what history will remember of John McCain.