As each day provides fresh new evidence that John McCain and the Republican Party are headed for an historic defeat, the party of Lincoln has devolved into a spasm of self-parody, hypocrisy and frantic desperation rarely before seen in modern American politics.

Devoid of any serious policy ideas for fixing the country's economic woes, Republicans have instead made the tactical decision to trot out the GOP's greatest hits of negative attacks - throwing every nasty attack line ever used against Democrats at Mr. Obama and hoping that one of them sticks.

This week, for example, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani could be heard on robocalls across America attacking Senator Obama as "soft on crime" a familiar GOP broadside that seems barely relevant to an electorate more concerned about white collar, rather than blue collar crime. But hey, it worked in 1988 - maybe it will work this year!

The soft on crime approach has always been well-twinned with the traditional GOP charge that Democrats are weak on national security. Since it's hard to identify Mr. McCain with an unpopular war; and since Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose; and since the Iraqi prime minister has basically endorsed the Democratic nominee's withdrawal plan for Iraq, the McCain campaign decided to dig up an unrepentant domestic terrorist who was committing acts of violence when Mr. Obama was in short-pants and say 'look you can't trust Barack Obama with his funny name and exotic background he pals around with terrorists!'

Of course, this year Americans are most concerned about the horrid state of the economy. But since Republicans have no plan for fixing it, they have instead decided to haul out that oldie but goodie, 'Democrats are tax and spend liberals.' Flummoxed by Mr. Obama's call for a middle class tax cut and a growing recognition by the American people that this might actually be true, Mr. McCain this week threw the Hail Mary of anti-tax passes: alleging that Mr. Obama wanted to raise hard working American's taxes and then distribute the money in the form of "welfare payments" to undeserving Americans. It's a political attack that is almost too crass for words, but hey 'Barack Obama is black and people hate welfare and everyone knows that welfare helps black people so maybe this one will work.'

And in maybe the most bizarre charge of the political season, Republicans have now begun to argue that Barack Obama is worse than being the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate; he's a socialist!

What is the root of this bizarre accusation: Obama's temerity in suggesting that well-off Americans should "spread the wealth" to help those in need. Now, let's ignore for a moment the fact that America's progressive taxation system is based on this very notion; let's ignore the fact that the interlocutor (the legendary Joe the Plumber) who forced Mr. Obama to use these dastardly words would actually benefit from the Democrat's tax plans; let's ignore the fact that John McCain himself recently voted for a $700 billion bailout plan that would allow the Treasury Secretary to nationalize America's banks; let's ignore the fact that Sarah Palin is Governor of a state that shares its oil wealth with each of its citizens, earning it the moniker "The Most Socialist State in America;" let's finally ignore the fact that Mr. McCain has based his campaign on a slogan "Country First," which would on the surface suggest a certain level of selflessness and sacrifice not just from politicians, but from voters . . . Socialism is a big nasty word and it worked for Herbert Hoover in 1928, surely it can work again!

Finally, when all else fails, some in GOP orbit have decided that maybe they can win by dividing the country between those who are pro-America (you know, 'real Americans') and those who hate America. The best example of this McCarthyite smear came from McCain advisor Nancy Pfotenhauer who declared non-Northern Virginia "Real Virginia" even though she not only lives in Northern Virginia, but works there as well . . . at the McCain for President headquarters.

What we are seeing is an exhausted and bereft political party wedded to its traditional political orthodoxies and unable to shift course: imagine an elephant in quick sand, sinking further and further and every time it lashes out trying to escape, falling deeper and deeper into the muck. Instead of seeking out new ideas or trying to appeal to what Lincoln called "the better angels" of our nature, McCain, Palin and their fellow Republicans seem to have nothing else but the litany of negative attacks they have utilized with depressing regularity in race after race over the past four decades.. This time, however, the kitchen sink is not working.

The saddest part of this extraordinary spectacle is that John McCain was possibly the one Republican politician able to arrest this decline - a man who had railed against demands for conservative purity and who modeled his political identity on that of Theodore Roosevelt, the G.O.P's most legendary enfant terrible.

But instead of providing a new path for Republicans, Mr. McCain made the strategic decision to tie himself to the worst elements of his party; the cut taxes, cut spending and disparage government economic conservatives; the unyielding and doctrinaire social conservatives, even the shoot first ask questions later, foreign policy neo-conservatives. One would think that after the disaster of the Bush years and the fulsome rejection of conservatism in 2006 McCain would have seen the writing on the wall and sought to separate himself from this toxic ideology. Instead he has embraced it; all the while following the Rovian model of divisive political combat and the valuing of authenticity over competence with the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Less than two weeks today, Republicans will likely lose the 2008 election. Democrats stand on the verge of a 20 seat-advantage in the Senate and a 70-seat spread in the House of Representatives (only four years after being a minority in both Houses).
To be sure, Republicans were always likely to lose this election: the dynamics were that strongly in the Democrats favor. But after the tawdry, inconsequential and divisive campaign their party has run they are likely to lose not only a political campaign but also their reputation and appeal to a broad swath of Americans. With seemingly little to offer the American people but fear, it might be quite a while before they reclaim it.