Op-Ed Columnist - Fire the Campaign - NYTimes.com

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign.

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Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

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Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed.

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And let McCain go back to what he’s been good at in the past — running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate.

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There are still enough doubts about Obama to allow McCain to win. But McCain needs to make his case, and do so as a serious but cheerful candidate for times that need a serious but upbeat leader.

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McCain can make the substantive case for his broadly centrist conservatism.

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our enemies won’t take a vacation because the markets are down

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At Wednesday night’s debate at Hofstra, McCain might want to volunteer a mild mea culpa about the extent to which the presidential race has degenerated into a shouting match. And then he can pledge to the voters that the last three weeks will feature a contest worthy of this moment in our history.

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