In a surprise move, the McCain campaign has announced that it has fired the public face of the campaign, Senator John McCain. Campaign spokesperson, Nancy Pfotenhauer, announced the decision to dumbstruck reporters at a hastily arranged press conference on Thursday:

"As of this morning, Senator John McCain has been placed on indefinite administrative leave. John and the campaign leadership have agreed that he is not a good fit for the campaign right now. The parting was amicable, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors."

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The economy and Bush's unpopularity would have made it tough for McCain to win the election no matter what, but as I predicted last February in one of my first political blogposts, Overestimating McCain, John McCain has played a weak hand poorly. I base my argument on the radical assumption that content matters. Whether delivered in rousing speeches, angry debates, or snide ads, if a candidate's message fails to resonate with voters, he or she is unlikely to prevail. I propose two measures for evaluating the effectiveness of a message: truthiness and importance. In an homage to Stephen Colbert, I use "truthiness" rather than "truth" because with regard to electability, the accuracy of a message doesn't ultimately matter as long as the voters believe it. The swiftboaters' message about Kerry's service was a lie, but unfortunately, enough voters found it persuasive to make a difference in the race.

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