Whether or not it helps in the polls depends on whether people buy it as sincere or if they think he's just denouncing it because it hasn't worked for him. And if they see him saying this, while still trying to reap the benefits of repulsive campaigning...color me optimistic, but that isn't going to fly this year.

Rove just doesn't scare me anymore. He's another sad old man flogging goods that people just ain't buying. In Harry Potter-speak, he's not a Dementor; he's a Boggart.

Whether it is a campaign ploy or not, I don't know. What I do know is when John McCain returns to the Senate next January, he can get back to business or face the consternation of his peers, to the extent he can no longer participate in the legislative process.

It's a similar thing with the press. Once the MSM's darling, he is now their enemy. His choice. Poor choice. If he allows himself and others in his campaign to incite the kind of audience behavior usually associated with KKK or neo-Nazi rallies, he will be the enemy of his fellow Senators. Really poor choice for a career politician.

Maybe he doesn't care. He doesn't need the money and he's 72 years old. He can retire to Senona and read books, maybe play a little golf, catch up on episodes of The West Wing he has Tivo'ed but too busy to watch.

But I rather think he does care about his reputation. Right now, his reputation is damaged. Not irreparably. He can walk away with it intact (albeit not to the same degree as before he took the low road).

Hillary Clinton said some things during the primaries which made me shake my head and shout, "Hillary - don't go there!" Some of her friends in New York had a "quiet word" with her. The crux of it was, "Continue on the low road, you will find yourself high and dry when you run again for your Senate seat". Not telling her to step down, but to scale back the rhetoric.

But one of the many differences between Hillary Clinton and John McCain is that Hillary really walks the talk. There were many tacks her campaign advisors (notably Mark Penn) told her to take in attacking Obama, and she refused - kept them completely off the table. She might want to run for POTUS again, or to retain her Senate seat; or for NY Governor if Patterson doesn't do a good job. Hillary is bright and forward-looking. John McCain neither has the intellect or the political talent that Hillary Clinton has, much less judgment and a real concern for the public good. Like McCain, she is ambitious. But she has 1,000 times more honor.

I have my fears, too, Connie. I've already heard some of the talking hairdos saying the "real" McCain is back. See, he really is a man of honor!

The wingnuts at his rallies are urging him to take the gloves off, really go after Obama at the next debate. I wonder if, instead, we'll see a contrite McCain, possibly near tears, imploring people to come together. He had nothing left in his bag of tricks except to slime Obama, but that was actually working against him, so now what?

I wouldn't put anything past the old fart, but whether anyone would fall for it at this late date I don't know.

That look on McCain's face was that of the boy who has been caught throwing stones at his neighbor's windows, and has been chastised and told to go apologize.

McCain/Palin: Rabble Rouse, Rabble Rouse, Rabble Rouse. Tell the Roused Rabble to cool it. Rabble Rouse, Rabble Rouse Rabble Rouse.......

The Secret Service and rational party elders chastised McCain, and made him go through the motions, His body language was that of the sulky boy who did not like what he was being made to do.

McCain/Palin will continue Rabble Rousing, while all the suckers are busy exonerating McCain, and swooning over him for being such an honorable man.

John McCain is considered an honorable man, because John McCain has spent the last thirty years telling us that he is an honorable man. Charles Keating, and his first wife, know all about his honorable ways