Imagining the moment of John McCain's epiphany

What persuaded John McCain to see that the hateful course his campaign has been pursuing for the past 10 days is counterproductive?

I'd like to think part of it was common decency. Another part may have been a wish to inoculate himself from blame if, God forbid, some horrible act should be carried out by a whipped-up partisan.

Other factors might include the growing number of Republican politicians and talkers who have come out to say he's going down the wrong road, and the polls that show his attempts to soil Obama's character can be brushed right off like so much clean sand.

If McCain is smart, and I do think he's at least shrewd, the tipping point may have been his realization of the truth in this statement by John Weaver, a former adviser who was sent away in last summer's campaign staff housecleaning:

“And from a purely practical political vantage point, please find me a swing voter, an undecided independent, or a torn female voter that finds an angry mob mentality attractive.”

I imagine that in a moment of campaign fatigue, McCain experienced one of those precious bursts of insight. You know those times when you're able to squint a little, step back from the details and see the whole picture? Maybe he was chilling in a hotel room, and glanced at the TV news, watching a Sarah Palin rally not from the stage or as part of a prepared clip reel, but the way voters see these orgies of political emotion.

He saw a Palin rally full of agitated faces, and arms thrusting signs into view with an excess of exuberance, and a chorus of booing that registered louder than the cheering.

Finally his gaze may have fallen on the face of his VP pick, and he understood how much she enjoys it all, how greedily she feeds off the negative energy.