53% think John McCain is going to win.

53% of right-0f-center bloggers, that is.

The tendency to lean right is about optimism. Isn't it? (That's what Rush Limbaugh is always saying.)

Right-of-center bloggers also think that Sarah Palin is wonderful and a big plus to the ticket, that the media is heavily biased in favor of Barack Obama (who is dishonest, unqualified and unpatriotic), and that what the GOP ought to do to fare better in elections is to get more conservative.

I might agree with that last point, if "conservative" got the definition I like. Yesterday, we got a bit of a discussion going under the heading "It there is an Obama landslide, how will the GOP retool." I consider this the same question. McCain seemed to represent the idea that the party -- or at least its presidential candidate -- needed to be less conservative. His choice of Sarah Palin backtracked from that idea and muddied the campaign's politics. Not that her conservatism appeals to me. I would have liked strong national security and smart economic policy, with little to nothing done about abortion and gay marriage and the like. Why is that so hard to do?

Ah, it's so frustrating. Remember when it seemed as though Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney was going to be the candidate? Those were the days. Some people complained about Rudy and Mitt's incoherence about abortion -- I defended them -- but the reason for that incoherence was perfectly clear. McCain is incoherent about all sorts of things. Really, did you see him on "Meet the Press"? That performance was wretched.