His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir — the person in whose hands he would leave the country — is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.

You either viscerally understand this, or you willfully ignore the reality of it all: McCain broke.

I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty. Those doing the accusing usually attributed my feelings to McCain being accessible. This is the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician’s lap.

Not so. What impressed me most about McCain was the effect he had on his audiences, particularly young people. When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story — that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.

McCain has soiled all that.

If Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly got together to endorse Barack Obama, Publius would hold it up as an example of liberal media bias. The real benefit of Publius’ uninformed ranting is that it reminds me that there were Republican koolaide drinkers long before anyone accused Obama’s most fervent supporters of being a little too fervent. Also: it lets me practice my eye-rolling.

He’s a confused old man whose campaign is now out of the hands of his long-time loyal aides and has been taken over by former Bush campaign people. They tell him what to say and who to say it to and he does as he’s told and I don’t think he has any idea what is going on any more.

People with Alzheimers disease need compassion and help. Not insults.

(Next up: Publius takes on that liberal WaPo water carrier, Howie Kurtz . . .)

I am getting tired of listening to how someone, anyone, is responsible for telling the truth. There’s your real shocker.

In all seriousness, this piece is one more glaring example of why a super-majority of Americans believes recognizes that the mainstream media is pulling out all the stops to get Obama elected.