Well, this was unpredicted, but unsurprising. Ken Duberstein endorses Barack Obama for President over John McCain. This has got to be painful for McCain's team, as the only thing holding their coalition together is their mutual fondness for Ronald Reagan.

This, of course, was following Lawrence Eagleburger admitting that she's just not able to do the job:

"I don't think at the moment she is prepared to take over the reigns of the presidency,'' he said. "I can name for you any number of other vice presidents who were not particularly up to it either. So the question, I think, is can she learn and would she be tough enough under the circumstances if she were asked to become president, heaven forbid that that ever takes place?

What is fascinating to me about these last few years has been watching the the Republican coalition fall apart. The Yankee Republican is all but dead. The Western Republican is almost entirely gone. Basically, all that's left of their once grand coalition is the religious right types and plutocrats - and they're just not enough to win elections.

-dx