Funniest rationalization ever.

Rich Lowry:

If McCain were running in a year when his party wasn't getting crushed by a series of calamites, he might be winning this race.

McSame's not losing because Bush and his party have completely wrecked the country. Not at all.
It's that they've just been completely innocent bystanders, crushed by a series of unfortunate events, totally beyond their control.

...TS ADDS: In case you were wondering, a calamite is

a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails (genus Equisetum) are closely related.

It's really, really old.