Well, I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, any hint of any kind of unethical activity there. Very pleased to be cleared of any of that.

Um, that's a total lie. The report says:

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

"The legislature reaffirms that each public offer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

Andrew Sullivan calls them the odd lies of Sarah Palin. Amen.

You may be aware of a new YouTube feature called "annotations." You may not have yet seen an annotation, but if you have, they are those little gray overlays on YouTube videos, typically urging you to visit a website, to subscribe to the channel of whoever posted video, or just to another watch video.

Each has their different reasons. The earliest to leave never really liked John McCain all that much anyway -- case in point, conservatives like George Will or Kathleen Parker. And certainly McCain's mortgage plan, which so enraged the National Review, cost him support from ideologues on the right.

But most Republicans abandoning ship just don't think John McCain will win. Their primary interest is protecting their own hide. They don't want to get blamed for defeat, and they don't want to go down with McCain. Take Bill Kristol, for example, who has been one of the biggest McCain apologists of the campaign. His unloading on McCain earlier today on FOX was all about saving his own skin. Basically, what Kristol is saying is that if McCain had used his strategy, then McCain would have had a chance.

My sense is that McCain's closing strategy is going to exacerbate the GOP flight from McCain.

Original post: Oh, this is just too much fun...they know that they've lost, and they're already pointing fingers. It's the beginning of the great unraveling:

Even GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone is getting in on the action, complaining that McCain's "campaign has no consistent message.''

That's just such an awesome thing to see Roger Stone say. I mean, he's basically pushing the Democratic line attack on McCain -- that McCain is erratic -- without even realizing it.

It seems as if the entire GOP is falling into disarray. It's nice finally being on the winning side, isn't it?

1. Completely edited out Palin's introduction, when fans booed her most loudly (the booing let up a bit as her daughters took the ice).
   
2. Edited out a 27 second stretch during which which loud boos and some applause could be heard, presumably to allow the video to jump straight to the applause after Palin dropped the puck.
   
3. In the video FOX did show, they used very poor audio quality, making it hard to discern the boos.

Here's a side-by-side video of the original broadcast and every moment of the FOX video up until Palin and her daughters start to leave the ice:

YouTube Link

The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper in a Flyers jersey. She said, "How dare they boo Piper!"

So basically Sarah Palin has been reduced to the "human shield" defense.

Also worth noting: the video that FOX used on its web site cut off the most intense boing, which came right as the Palin's presence was announced.

"The main thing he needs to do," said Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota, "is focus on a single message -- a single, concise or clear-cut message, and stick with that over the next 30 days, regardless of what happens. He's had a lot of attack lines. But it's time to choose."

Emphasis added, because as smart as it would be for McCain to be a bit less erratic, 30 days from now is Monday, Nov. 10 -- six days after the election.

Guthrie needs to learn how to read. From page 8:

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

"The legislature reaffirms that each public offer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

I don't know about Guthrie, but where I come from, when you violate a statute, you're not just breaking the rules, you're breaking the law.

• Politifact: McCain's claim that "(Bill) Ayers and Obama ran a radical education foundation together" is "pants-on-fire" false.
• CNN: Obama's claim that "McCain would shift the burden from lenders to taxpayers, guaranteeing a loss of taxpayer money" is true.
  

Here's video of CNN's report: