In "Obama Hasn't Closed the Sale," appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove explains that the race isn't over yet, and Mr. McCain still has a clear path to victory (if he is wise enough to follow Rove's guidance). Here, in brief, are his three biggest nuggets of wisdom for Mr. McCain:

Mr. McCain appears to be making three important course corrections. First, he and Gov. Sarah Palin are sharpening their stump speeches so their sound bites come off well on TV....

Second, Mr. McCain is shaping a story line that draws on well-founded concerns about Mr. Obama's lack of record or experience. Mr. McCain is also bowing to reality and devoting most of his time to the economy....

Mr. McCain's other adjustment is his schedule. His campaign understands the dire circumstances it faces and is narrowing his travels almost exclusively to Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Nevada. If he carries those states, while losing only Iowa and New Mexico from the GOP's 2004 total, Mr. McCain will carry 274 Electoral College votes and the White House.

Got that? By tweaking his sound bites for TV, hitting Obama hard on the "experience" issue that worked so well for Hillary, and by throwing up a white flag in every Kerry state plus Iowa and New Mexico, McCain may be able to pull off "the most impressive and improbable political comeback since Harry Truman in 1948".

Something needs to be said here about the audacity of Mr. Rove in continuing to hold himself up as a guru, bestowing sage advice to struggling adepts, despite the fact that so far the 2008 race has served as a resounding repudiation of his grotesque legacy of fear and smear politics. Somebody needs to tell Mr. Rove that he's obsolete.

Or soon will be, as we will learn early in the evening on November 4.