"Unfit" is the New "McSame," or "Bush's Third Term," or...

Here's John McCain's new ad buy, "Fact Check":

The attacks on Governor Palin have been called “completely false” … ”misleading”. And, they’ve just begun.

The Journal reports Obama “air-dropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers” into Alaska to dig dirt on Governor Palin. As Obama drops in the polls, he’ll try to destroy her.

Obama’s “politics of hope”? Empty words.

The ad comes amid increasing signs of desperation among left wing partisans. McCain, for example, is coming under fire this afternoon as "unfit for office," a meme captured in Steve Benen's post, "Unfit":

... John McCain was presented with a choice: lose the election or lose his honor. As has become painfully clear, McCain chose the latter.

Benen cites Josh Marshall and Andrew Sullivan for support, both of whom have been taken down themselves as unfit for blogging (by Ann Althouse and Ace of Spades, respectively).

What the "unfit" line signifies is faux-moral frustration masking the left's outrage at the McCain campaign's rejuvenation, and the flailing will only get worse before it gets better. Not only are McCain/Palin's polling numbers surging, the Obama campaign can't recapture the lead in the media spin cycle. As Soren Dayton shows, McCain/Palin's dominance of the headlines will continue at least another couple of weeks:

Tomorrow is September 11. Sarah Palin will wish her son off to war in Iraq tomorrow. Between that and Joe Biden's blunder about Hillary Clinton being more qualified, John McCain and the GOP own the rest of this week.

Time is running out on Barack Obama. The last day that they have had substantial positive control over the content of the news cycle was the day of Barack Obama's acceptance speech, two weeks ago. You can't hear him talk about CHANGE! because John McCain, Sarah Palin, or Obama's own surrogates are stepping on Obama's story every single day.

Let's look at the schedule for the rest of the election.

Tomorrow is September 11. Sarah Palin will wish her son off to war in Iraq tomorrow. Between that and Joe Biden's blunder about Hillary Clinton being more qualified, John McCain and the GOP own the rest of this week.

So they will have between Monday the 16th and Thursday the 25th to have significant impact over the news cycle. On the 26th, the first Presidential debate will happen. But between the the 16th and the 25th, there will be:

• [Charles] Gibson interview of Sarah Palin on ABC.
• Probably a significant profile or two of Sarah Palin.
• Some sort of serious debate in Congress on energy.

One can imagine that this will suck up 3 of those 8 news cycles.

It's clear now that the McCain/Palin ticket is the left's worst nightmare (Palin's turning out to be better than any possible running mate imaginable).

So, while today McCain's "unfit for office," over the next few weeks he'll be turned something even worse, some sort of abomination of GOP evil, a swastika-boasting McChimpy hulked up on some demononological, steroidal-mimicking DNA-changing gamma blasts, poised to sink the country even further into the abyss of Iraq, Katrina, and 47 million without health insurance...

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!