By Denis Campbell

The lunatic right fringe of an imploded party seems to be doing all the talking lately. Is anyone listening? Some snippets already working across the Web.

Obama the 1-termer
The guy is 69-days away from Inauguration and already the Right is calling him a 1-term President.

Barone Blunders Badly
A roomful of academics erupted in angry boos Tuesday morning after political analyst Michael Barone said journalists trashed Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republicans’ vice presidential nominee, because “she did not abort her Down syndrome baby.” Barone said in an e-mail that he “was attempting to be humorous and … went over the line.”  

Barone was speaking at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, to the 121st annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, which calls itself the nation’s oldest higher-education association. About 500 people were in the room, and some walked out.

“The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby,” Barone said, according to accounts by attendees. “They wanted her to kill that child. … I’m talking about my media colleagues with whom I’ve worked for 35 years.”  Barone, a popular speaker on the paid lecture circuit, is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and principal coauthor of “The Almanac of American Politics.” 

Dole’s Godless Ad Sees Money Fly In – To Hagan
Steve Lowe, head of the Washington Area Secular Humanists saw Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s “godless” campaign ad, he did something he’d done only once before — he sent money to a political candidate. Turns out, Sen.-elect Kay Hagan got 3,600 contributions within 48 hours of Dole airing of the controversial ad, which centered on Hagan’s attendance at a fund-raiser at the Boston home of someone active in the atheist community. The Democrat from Greensboro had immediately used the “godless” ad as an e-mail fund-raising tool, and it paid off. “I told Hagan’s campaign, ‘This is the reason you’re getting money from me — I want you to know this is not hurting you, this has helped you,’” said Lowe said, who gave $50 to Hagan and called Dole, R-N.C., several times to complain. The 3,600 donations came from a cross-section of society.

Palin debate is a win-win for McCain  
The Palin obsession — which she has fed by going on a media tour and returning to the Lower 48 for the RGA meeting —   obscures the mistakes McCain made in his own campaign (though some would say one of those was in picking the Alaska governor).  The central debate in the GOP is not now what typically takes place after a party loses — what the candidate did wrong or whether he ran too far to the left, right or middle.  

Instead, it’s entirely forward-looking, and based around whether Palin represents the future of the party.   McCain will have a voice in this, yes, but the base of the party never cared much for him and McCain himself never has shown much interest in being a party leader.  So now, as the battle over Palin begins, McCain can quietly begin to reclaim his own legacy and place in public life.  That begins tonight with an appearance on Leno and will accelerate as he re-engages in the Senate.
I’m full and feeling ill.