Sorry to make the first comment an OT one, but this ought to be causing wingnut cranial explosions all over the place.

Anymore? Did you ever know?

It’s a wonder there isn’t some kind of knowledge-anti-knowledge explosion with this douchebag sharing editorial space with Krugman.

Shorter: The fact that they took my advice is proof positive that they are idiots who deserve to lose.

The NYT log-in page has a pretty good shorter of their own;

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign. He needs to reposition himself as a serious but cheerful candidate for times that need a serious but upbeat leader.

I’m hoping this was an intentional poke.

OK guys, its third and 27 …. lets punt. Couldn’t hurt and hey, they will never see it coming.

Mister Poutyface is full of pout.

Donald Luskin is busy crying into the beer he poured into his Cheerios™ this morning.

Shit, this is terrible.

If Kristol’s record holds (wrong about everything, all the time), then Obama is in big trouble and McCain will be revealed to be the Lex Luthor of politics.

More shorter Bill Kristol:

How ironic, I wanted The American People to shit their Pants for MCain in ’08, but now I’m shitting mine.

If Kristol’s record holds (wrong about everything, all the time)…

I’m not sure it’d apply here, now that the situation is so glaringly obvious. The principle might be like a superstition my last boss used to semi-seriously hold – if she carried an umbrella, it wouldn’t rain. Unless it had already started raining by the time she went out, in which case the umbrella couldn’t stop it; it could only prevent rain.

Hm. That “The Brother’s brother” was me.

What the Brother’s brother said makes absolutely no sense at all, and thus succeeds at explaining Kristol.

You know what the McCain campaign should do? What Bill? I’m glad you asked Bill! I think they should, no I don’t think that, yes I do, no I don’t, it’s just…if they would only listen to me, then they shouldn’t have listened to the first thing I said and if only someone listened to the first thing I said they’d realize that I already realized that realization of the McCain campaign is that this is the right course of action to stop the first course of action that I never told them to do because they didn’t listen to me the first time and on top of everything THIS IS BAD NEWS…FOR OBAMA!

I agree with the argument that McCain should fire his campaign.

What?

Oh, and then re-hire other people?

No, I’m opposed to that part.

I’m not sure Kristol is being honest in his “advice.” While it might be that he is of the “try anything and everything” to prevent the coming epic fail on November 4, he’s also got his future to think of. Advising something incredibly stupid (and seeing as McCain has 3 weeks to turn this around he isn’t likely going to follow it) gives Kristol the opportunity to say “if only McCain had listened to me.”

In a related development, McCain will announce to his supporters today, “My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.” No, really.

I think montysano’s onto something.

So is this a McCain campaign MacGuffin, or a mulligan?

In a related development, McCain will announce to his supporters today, “My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.” No, really.

So in other words, McPOW transforms himself into Baghdad Bob right before our very eyes.

I actually had a similar thought about McCain just trying to reinvent his campaign and was worried that he might still find a way to pull it off with an “I’ve seen the light and now I’m going to be positive” theme. Now that Kristol suggests it, though, I know it can’t possibly work. Fuck you, William Kristol. Go get a job, and leave us alone.

If McCain does follow Kristol’s advice and fire his campaign, will Smut Clyde, in the spirit of transnational bipartisanship, do the same?

Let’s imagine a McCain interview by Bill Kristol on some TV show. When Bill Kristol asks a particularly stupid question* McCain produces a cream pie and smushes it all over Kristol’s idiot face.

Do McCain’s numbers go up or down?

*Assumes McCain can identify a particularly stupid question. Earpiece required?

And to think, Kristol came up with advice after only two shakes of his Magic 8-ball.

In addition to his many, many other shortcomings, Kristol thinks that “media” is singular.

By the way, is he also one of those pundits who say that how a candidate runs a campaign foreshadows how he would run his administration?

McCain has succeeded spectaculary in choosing the worst people possible to advise him both on the economy and on foreign affairs.

In between Bill Kristol and Phil Gramm, you have 16 tons of EPIC FAIL.

Thanks for destroying the GOP, Senator McCain. It’s a dirty job, and someone needed to do it.

“My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.”

Yeah, John, in leather boots and fishnets, whipping the ever-loving shit out of you.

Though he should be commended for speaking so clearly with a ball-gag in his mouth.

“My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.”

“I’m winning, Spongebob!“

It now seems wonderfully appropriate for Kristol to have appeared (as a talking head) in Frank Miller’s execrable “Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again.” Neither Miller nor Kristol gives a flying fuck. If Miller were inking this campaign, right about now is where he’d show McCain and Palin fucking in Earth’s orbit. I mean, why not? What has McCain got to lose? He’s a shitty pilot and he might even enjoy it.

“They’re happy warriors and good campaigners. Set them free.”

has Kristol even bothered to watch either st.bbq or mooseburg slim campaign? Happy they ain’t, not by a longshot. And the only time they get a reaction from the crowd is when they start tossing out the resentful, victimized talking points. That gets the crowd, the crowd they have carefully cultivated and indoctrinated, going.

Fueled by hate and resentment. Even if we acknowledge that Obama, for political reasons, should never have uttered this;

“They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

There’s no question it’s not true and the only fueling the rethug ticket right now.

Excuse, last line, there’s no question that Obama’s statement isn’t true, it is. Just to be clear.

I’d like to see McSame drop the puck at a Flyers game.

“McCain might want to volunteer a mild mea culpa about the extent to which the presidential race has degenerated into a shouting match.”

“…and a hearty uck-fay oo-yay about the extent to which its degeneration is entirely the fault of him, his running mate, and the troglodytes at his rallies who have now replaced the press as his–oh, the irony–‘base.'”

I find it amusing that none, NONE, of the conservative pundits have a clue what to do.

It’s a perfect storm of talking point meltdowns.

I mean, I believe in Karma, and I knew it would happen one day.

I just didn’t know it would happen in the space of a few weeks.

What a Fn Dbag. Is Kristol ever right about anything?

What a Fn Dbag. Is Kristol ever right about anything?

No.

This has been another addition of SATSQ.

Memo to McCain and Palin: Forget this”happy warrior” bullshit. There’s only one way you can win: Go after the haters. Get the bigots stoked. The GOP has been successfully appealing to racism for nearly half a century, and racism is the only thing that will save you now.

Of course, you’ll tear the country apart and make it impossible to govern, but hey, we all know winning elections is the be-all and end-all, right?

I do take solace that even as my finances are shipwrecked, the idiots who orchestrated this whole thing now have to sputter and wheeze about how it isn’t their fault.

The McCain campaign has been a bizarre thing. Remember those primaries? Each wing of the party found something to hate about the other wing’s candidates, leaving McCain, positioned as the moderate, as the nominee. But he wasn’t conservative enough, so his campaign remade him. In the process, he distanced himself from moderate voters, but more importantly, he jumped on the S.S. Conservative just as she was sinking below the waves.

God. Mittens, Ghouliani, Sen. L&O, Huckabee … and Dr. Paul. Those were good days.

Badoodle-boo-yeah, it’s Boss Bill with some solid advice for the McCainiacs! We’ve been smeared and defamed by Obummer and the loony libs here at Sadly, No!, and it’s only conservative of us to turn the other cheek! I like this man’s style, folks, and you better believe that we’ll kill ya with kindness all the way to a sweeping victory in Nutty November!

Ding dong dilly, libs! You just got served a SPREAD of TRUTH from the Cool Coach and Boss Bill Kristol! Urban out.

The hope for McCain and Palin is that they still have pretty good favorable ratings from the voters. The American people have by no means turned decisively against them.

I want some of whatever Kristol’s smoking.

I suspect it’s pretty good shit. I bet it doesn’t take much of it to get really high.

Kristol:

And let McCain go back to what he’s been good at in the past — running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate. Palin should follow suit.…

Provide total media accessibility on their campaign planes and buses.…Keep just a minimal staff to help organize the press conferences McCain and Palin should have at every stop and the TV interviews they should do at every location.

Yes, please do this. And as thunder says, more puck drops, coin tosses, and first pitches.

Man, that picture reminds me that one time that me and the sidekick were watching Star Trek and they had those fried-egg nerve parasites and one landed on Spock, right? I says to Dick, I says, “Tell you what, anything like that lands on Earth, you let Clark handle it. That shit is right off the fucking hook.”

Anyway, Kristol, what a fucking tool. Krugman is going to have blonde Swedish Nobel groupies arm-wrestling to see who gets the next beard ride, and Kristol will be trying to convince McCain that he’s got this genius plan to win the election, and also a penis growth formula that really works, here let me show–BLAM BLAM.

Allegedly unsafe for work.

I wouldn’t know, because I’m not at work.

Columbus Day off, Beaches!

Yes, please do this. And as thunder says, more puck drops, coin tosses, and first pitches.

Yes, don’t talk about the economy or anything. No one is nervous about that. Let’s get back to the “likable idiot” campaign of the previous administration.

Also, the arc of politics is amusing. Everything is going great -> elect and idiot. Foreign affairs crisis -> stick with the idiot. Domestic crisis -> need someone good.

finally, finally, finally…I’m seeing the ads criticizing the mcmansions health care plan. taxing people’s health care benefits was the stupidest fucking idea and he deserves to lose because of it. he deserves to lose for many other reasons too, but the incredible ‘tone-deafness’ of his campaign, and of the republicans running it, ensure that we will be able to kick them for a long time.

Fire the campaign and start from scratch with three weeks to go. Yeah, that’s the ticket, Bill. That will win the confidence of the American people. Maybe Sarah can import her Alaskan machine to the national scene. How can the Times keep this buffoon on the payroll?

He somehow is able to admit that the organization Obama has built totally outmatches McCain’s Keystone Cops constabulary. Bill, does it not occur to you that that is a tacit admission that Obama is a vastly superior leader to McCain?

Krugman is going to have blonde Swedish Nobel groupies arm-wrestling to see who gets the next beard ride, and Kristol will be trying to convince McCain that he’s got this genius plan to win the election, and also a penis growth formula that really works

Amen, GD Batman

At least we don’t have to put up with the douchebag Robert Novak any more. Maybe Bill Kristol will self-destruct too.

He’s looking more and more like Katherine Helmond in Brazil.

Hey, let’s be fair, Kristol has been absolutely right about at least one thing: Wingnut Welfare is the only way to fly for someone who is always wrong.

McCain’s only chance is to hire David Axelrod.

Maybe Bill Kristol will self-destruct too.

Well, to be accurate, Novak developed a brain tumor.

Which kind of surprised me. I thought it was pus.

… but more importantly, he jumped on the S.S. Conservative just as she was sinking below the waves.

and he brought Palin, Gramm, Davis, the Professor and Mary-Ann on board to punch holes in the life boats and bail water into the engine room.

Oh yeah, they are some seriously cheerful happy warriors. Every time I see Bible Spice talking. she looks like she just smelled something really awful but can’t run off the stage because everyone will then know who dealt it.

In addition to his many, many other shortcomings, Kristol thinks that “media” is singular.

Thank you Davis. I thought I was the only person left in the English-speaking world who understood “media” to be a plural noun. I was beginning to doubt myself.

Brain tumor–or brain cells committing seppuku? The world will never know.

I hope they take your advice, Bill. The American people will be overjoyed at having the opportunity to vote for a person apparently suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder.

How exciting it will be for us to wonder who will show up to meet with Putin and negotiate over the Russian presence in Georgia on any given day! Will it be the Happy Warrior, the Heroic Crusader Against Terror, the Pragmatic Aisle-Reacher-Acrosser, the Complacent Companion of Lobbyists, the Fatalistic Hero or Gramps Who Doesn’t Remember that Czechoslovakia Isn’t Anymore?

Coach, you just keep on turning cheeks and we’ll let you know if you ever get to one that interests us, then you can serve your spread. Go ahead and hold your breath, it surely won’t be long.

“the Pragmatic Aisle-Reacher-Acrosser”

Reach ACROSS, not reach AROUND. That makes all the difference.

Is that ….

Is that ….

Is that the filling of a Cadbury Cream egg on Billy’s face?

Off-topic, but you can see people’s heads exploding over Krugman at http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/10/paul-krugman-wi.html#comments

Is that the filling of a Cadbury Cream egg on Billy’s face?

I was thinking more like splooge, but you could be right.

How exciting it will be for us to wonder who will show up to meet with Putin and negotiate over the Russian presence in Georgia on any given day! Will it be the Happy Warrior, the Heroic Crusader Against Terror, the Pragmatic Aisle-Reacher-Acrosser, the Complacent Companion of Lobbyists, the Fatalistic Hero or Gramps Who Doesn’t Remember that Czechoslovakia Isn’t Anymore?

As I understand it, Putin happens to like all that in an American President.

The bigger question is: When will Rupert,( Gary, too), cut their losses short?

it’s the pivot that makes me crazy. “i’m for A” followed two days later by “A is a disaster for this candidate” followed by an “A sure seems to be working, just as i thought it would” quickly replaced with “A. all those involved should be put up against the wall.”

ad fucknitum.

william kristol is as dishonest a human being as i’ve ever seen in the public sphere. he should be physically intimidated wherever he appears in public.

“As I understand it, Putin happens to like all that in an American President.”

Especially the last. The less the president remembers about all those post-soviet states that spun out of the USSR, the better!

My fellow prisoners, we’ve got them right where they want us.

Off-topic, but you can see people’s heads exploding over Krugman at…

It’s all over the intertubes. They’re all going, “First Gore, now Krugman, I am done with you forever, reality and your liberal bias!”

He’s looking more and more like Katherine Helmond in Brazil.

I see it more like he wants to be Jack, the (Michael) Palin character but he’s actually Sam, deluded as all fuck.

Katherine Helmond was fabulous in Brazil. Just fabulous.

My fellow prisoners, we’ve got them right where they want us.

I keep thinking of a groggy, charred, smokey Daffy Duck, right after being blown to shit saying, “I’ve got him right where he wanths me!”

NYT ham-handed attempt at “balance”: A Nobel Prize winner and Bill Kristol on the same page.

Krugman is going to have blonde Swedish Nobel groupies arm-wrestling to see who gets the next beard ride, and Kristol will be trying to convince McCain that he’s got this genius plan to win the election, and also a penis growth formula that really works.

I want to agree, but anyone else not so sure what a beard ride is? I checked Gazoog and urbandictionary.com, too.

Best shorter ever.

I want to agree, but anyone else not so sure what a beard ride is?

I just assumed it was something from the world of academia, like the oral exam.

So the Democratic presidential majority started to collapse in 1968. In 1980, Reagan beats Carter, Republicans win the Senate for the first time in a generation. In 1994, Republicans obviously win both Houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years and two generations, they’ve held that since. And now we have a Republican President and a Republican Congress, both reelected for the first time since 1924. So, this election is the culmination of a 36-year, rolling, Republican realignment during which time they’ve come to at least pare it to slight majority status.

In the exit polls, I think Republicans and Democrats were even at 37 percent each in self-identification. That’s the best Republicans have done in modern times since the Democrats became the majority party. Republicans don’t have a solid majority. Obviously, 51–48 is not a landslide, but having held Congress now for five straight elections, having won an absolute majority of the presidential vote, and again, having a president reelected with a Republican Congress, with a Congress of his own party, does seem that this is the end of a 36-year process.

The question is: is it the end in the sense that now it all falls apart? or is it the end in the sense that finally they’re a majority party and now they can really govern and change American politics and American policies? Either of those is possible. That’s why so much depends on what Bush actually does over the next four years as opposed to what happened on November 2nd.

Kristol speaking at Harvard in December 2004 (pdf).

It’s a photo-finish to be sure, but I think

serious but cheerful

(as in “As of 0700 hours Washington time, I’ve ordered pre-emptive tactical nuclear strikes on all major Russian missile sites & submarine pens – & gosh darn it all, I think this is the best idea I’ve had all week! Being President is WAY easier than they said it would be! Who wants fondue?”)

is slightly more moronic than

serious but upbeat

(as in “Mr. Jones, the tests show that you’ve got 4-6 months left to live, but HEY, wasn’t that a lovely morning, what with the sun & the nice warm breeze? You couldn’t’ve asked for a better day for a fatal-disease diagnosis, huh?”).

Unree – you might have better luck Googling “mustache ride.”

Best shorter ever.

I’ve always been a fan of the Confederate Wankee one that was just I need attention.

Silver puts some pieces together. Plus, color-coded graphic!

J-

So, is this the start of the flipside of some cycle? The Rethugs “1968” comeuppance? If so, that means it’ll be around 2038 before I have to worry about . . .

Wait. I’ll be dead or seriously deep in dementia by then.

“”it’s the pivot that makes me crazy. “i’m for A” followed two days later by “A is a disaster for this candidate” followed by an “A sure seems to be working, just as i thought it would” quickly replaced with “A. all those involved should be put up against the wall.””

I don’t think this is really “pivoting” per se, but rather merely a reflection of Kristol, as a paid GOP apologist, having no fucking idea about how to do his job, which is to get out the winger message and convince people of its appeal. That Kristol has retained this job, despite his abject failure and penchant for getting everything he talks about wrong, is bizarre.

Silver puts some pieces together. Plus, color-coded graphic!

Comedy gold at 538!

I don’t think this is really “pivoting” per se…

It’s thrashing. On the floor, drooling, head banging on concrete, thrashing.

One last shining ray of hope out of the dessicated corpse of the NYT:

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar, New York Times columnist and unabashed liberal, won the Nobel prize in economics Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect international trade patterns.

We’ve got Krugman and Stiglitz (Nobel Prizes-2 Failed Economies-0).

They’ve got Paulson and Bernanke (Nobel Prizes-0 Failed Economies-2. They both own it).

Our guys are, like, four better than their guys.

And people still aren’t convinced?

I will now commence banging my head repeatedly to try and make the real pain stop.

in 40 years and two generations, they’ve held that since. And now we have a Republican President and a Republican Congress, both reelected for the first time since 1924

Hmm. 1924 to 1929 = 5 years. Georgie needed 7 to wreck the country this time. His record of incompetence continues unabated.

Also, isn’t the framing of his politics just fantastic? “Unabashed” liberal.

I guraran-fucking-tee you you’ll never see the word “unabashed” precede the word “conservative.

Prominent. Outspoken. Opinionated, even.

But “unabashed?” No way. That would imply shame. And only DFH liberals should be ashamed.

Like knowing enough about economics to win the Nobel Fucking Prize might turn you against the government that fucked up the best economy in history is not smart politics, or something.

I will now recommence banging my head.

Heck, they’ve all been repudiated. Bush, Greenspan, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice. All wrong, all the time. And their little dogs too, in the media and the noise machine.

Peace over war, prudence over debt, empathy over selfishness. It’s not that complicated.

I don’t think this is really “pivoting” per se, but rather merely a reflection of Kristol, as a paid GOP apologist, having no fucking idea about how to do his job, which is to get out the winger message and convince people of its appeal. That Kristol has retained this job, despite his abject failure and penchant for getting everything he talks about wrong, is bizarre.

This. It’s not just that Kristol is a lousy analyst (though he certainly is). It’s that he’s a lousy partisan, even, making his side out to be the ridiculous ad hoc dopes we know them to be. If he had any talent at all, he could at least hide it.

Also, he’s a fairly crappy writer.

So, OT, but this is where it starts to get really weird – Hitch, Hitch, endorses Obama.

How come them damn Swedish anti-Americans didn’t come up with a Nobel prize for War-Mongering? Huh? I thought so. What about for Right Wing Douche-nozzlery? Hmph. Libruls.

I guraran-fucking-tee you you’ll never see the word “unabashed” precede the word “conservative.

Staunch. Republicans are always staunch. As in “staunch the bleeding.”

I guraran-fucking-tee you you’ll never see the word “unabashed” precede the word “conservative.

Not so. One usually sees it used by a conservative with the implication that to identify as such is an act of extreme bravery. Which it might actually turn out to be.

One usually sees it used by a conservative with the implication that to identify as such is an act of extreme bravery.

Yeah, “I’m an unabashed conservative” as in “I am courageously a conservative in spite of all the persecution, victimization, sexual deprivation and physical danger that entails.”

So, OT, but this is where it starts to get really weird – Hitch, Hitch, endorses Obama.

It’s to the point where I’m half expecting Obama endorsements from Dick Cheney, Adam Yoshida, and McCain’s mother.

Okay, a minute ago on NPR Kristol just admitted that his fire the campaign and be a nice guy bullshit “probably won’t work, frankly.” Completely validates today’s shorter, that’s for sure.

MaineMan: I’m just hoping Kristol’s first question (“is it the end in the sense that now it all falls apart?”) is proven prescient.

will Smut Clyde, in the spirit of transnational bipartisanship, do the same?
In Socialist New Zealand, campaign fires me!

“Anymore” is not a word.
The charitable explanation is that Brad used it in the Shorter as a hat-tip to the singular-noun status of ‘media’.

Istoo.

Gesundheit.

McCain’s got all the racists and the bed-wetters (Hi, Troof!) in his corner, but unfortunately there aren’t enough of them, showing that America is not quite the hive of ignorance and cowardice that the Republicans thought it was.

If he tries to change his tone to make conservatism look appealing to honest, decent people, he risks losing the nitwits and the American Taliban.

What to do, what to do …

I don’t think seeking out Bill Kristol’s advice would be on the list, even if it was a long list.

What isis, what ain’tain’t nothing.

Is it actually, mathematically possible to be more wrong than Kristol? Would it take some sort of topological contortions unavailable in four-dimensional spacetime? Can you be more wrong than when you’re so wrong that you’re even wrong about admitting that you were wrong about something you were actually wrong about?

Wrong starts to lose objective meaning with this idiot. Like the sound and spelling of the word “lawn-mower” repeated forty times too often in a row, the sheer familiarity makes it seem out of place and uncomfortable, though it is the only possibility.

It would be nice if I could wish for some benign roadblock to stanch any further output from this walking bag of gummy lighthouses, but since I can’t, I’l just continue hoping that he gets hit by a bus.

Hitch endorses Obama

– & the diving-board that hath been hastily erected on the prow of the “S.S. Republican” threatens to burst into flame, so fiercely doth it vibrate with the frantic cascade of exiting rats. Oh, but how sweetly doth the poor overworked thing twang with each new parabolically launched lump of bald-tailed ejactamenta!

Peace over war, prudence over debt, empathy over selfishness. It’s not that complicated.

Unfortunately, there are oodles of people whose sole source of income consists of needlessly complicating things. Positions like “market analyst” & “consultant” spring to mind, just for starters. The critters we now call “journalists” have long since joined their ranks.

Things WILL eventually become much simpler … but I don’t think we’re going to enjoy how we get there from here very much.

“Anymore” is not a word.

I very much want to agree with you – but these guys beg to differ.

It’s to the point where I’m half expecting Obama endorsements from Dick Cheney, Adam Yoshida, and McCain’s mother.

I could so see Roberta McCain opposing JiSM3. There’s at least one precedent (though I don’t think WP will like my link): a hundred years ago, W.H. Taft’s mother said she didn’t think her son had any business running for president.

Keep the campaign. We’re enjoying it. Fire Kristol.

I stood up a little straighter in my chair after looking at that picture of Billy Kristol if you know what I mean. Thanks Brad. Hugs.

A small point, but hilarious nevertheless:
what is with this fixation on “town-hall-meetings”? As in “no more ads, spend all the money on town-hall-meetings”? These people don’t seem to get it that the only reason the “town-hall-meetings” worked in the primaries was because McCain ran against the universally despised Mitt “The Nit” Romney. I suspect that a “series of strip-poker parties” would have also worked against Romney.
Hey, guys, sorry to break it to U, but McCain really sucks at town hall meetings.

McCain’s got all the racists and the bed-wetters (Hi, Troof!) in his corner, but unfortunately there aren’t enough of them, showing that America is not quite the hive of ignorance and cowardice that the Republicans thought it was.

Epigraph for the McInsane 2008 presidential campaign: “Even the fucktards were insulted.”

Hitch endorses Obama

You can almost hear the bedwetters over at LGF’s head explode on hearing this news.

This is a tough spot for McCain. Having already taken Kristol’s advice to devastating effect, he is now being told — by Kristol — to do something else and stop listening to those responsible. It’s practically a logic puzzle. Or an illogic puzzle given the parties involved.

McCain should stop unveiling gimmicky proposals every couple of days that pretend to deal with the financial crisis.

Part of Kristol’s gimmicky proposal is that McCain stop unveiling gimmicky proposals. Will that work? You betcha!