Tod Lindberg, informal adviser

Some semi-useful points:

Today's Democrats may well overreach in much the same way that Republicans did after they won their congressional majority in 1994, when they took the "center" out of center-right. If so, Democratic hubris will create opportunities for the GOP to get a hearing.
And so far, center-left government is largely an abstraction for the country. People like the sound of it, especially against the backdrop of a financial crisis and recession. In these center-left times, voters are receptive -- or rather, it is their receptiveness that makes these times center-left. But whether they will like the new Obama tilt in practice remains to be seen.
So Republicans should not despair. They will have plenty of time to work up a critique of Obama's policies as they unfold. But Republicans should not count on Democratic failure -- and they certainly should not regard it as inevitable because of a conservatism they impute to an electorate that has, shall we say, moved on.

I think the key thing in this whole column is the bug at the end:

He was an informal foreign policy adviser to the McCain campaign.

"Informal"? What does that mean, to be "an informal foreign policy adviser"? Is that kind of like "the cheapskate bastards wouldn't pay me," or what? This is why I don't give free advice to politicians. I might tell 'em to go to hell, but that's the limit of my free advice. I'm always happy to state my opinions, but if I ever became an actual "adviser" (informal or otherwise), I might get blamed for the politician's screwups. And I don't need that guilt.

In that sense, then, Lindberg has offered himself as a convenient scapegoat for everything that went wrong with the McCain campaign. We blame you, Tod!