Campaigns as a political institution

Presidential campaigns are supposed to provide information so people can make intelligent choices. Partly from the candidates' announced intentions, and the rest from what we can discern about character, temperament, and intellect.

I've had my doubts sometimes about how well campaigns work, in an age of over-the-top media manipulation and contrived narratives, to do what they are supposed to. But can anyone doubt that the McCain campaign has been astonishingly revealing about what an erratic, lunatic child he is?

I was told before the campaign by Republicans who know McCain personally that he is more of a child than an adult, and that he is temperamentally unsuited to be president. Some of the people who have told me this said they couldn't support him, others were doing so anyway and perhaps even found it endearing (the childishness, not the temper).

But can anyone doubt now that he is utterly unsuited to be president? Even the National Review Online and the Wall Street Journal are raising their eyebrows about his latest stunt.