We all knew it was headed for this. McCain's "Straight Talk Express" began to cross the double yellow line some time ago, and this past week John McCain's failing campaign organization ceremoniously admitted as much, renaming the bus that carried that name with a new moniker -- the "No Surrender."

Isn't declaring that you "will not surrender" pretty much the same as admitting that you may need to in the future, but are deciding not to at the moment?

The final bell on McCain's candidacy for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination will come on January 22, 2008 -- the date of the New Hampshire primary. Meanwhile, the wheels continue to fall off the bus.

McCain's much-publicized financial difficulties continue. His fundraising efforts began to falter in the early summer, and have continued to deteriorate. McCain admits that they've drastically cut expenses, euphemistically referring to the new spending plan as "leaner".

And another wheel fell off yesterday, with the news that McCain's Michigan state campaign manager Attorney General Mike Cox is resigning as McCain's state chairman. Cox is expected to run for Governor in 2010, and is choosing to distance himself from the creaking McCain bus now rather than ride it into defeat. Both Cox and McCain are not commenting on this development.

But in my view McCain ran his bus off the road last Thursday night. Speaking at a crowded VFW Hall in Hudson, New Hampshire -- in the midst of the "Petraeus/Betray Us" brouhaha sparked by MoveOn.org's NYT's ad -- McCain as much as admitted that he no longer believed in the Constitutional right of free speech in this country when in reference to the MoveOn ad he declared:

"It's disgraceful, it's got to be retracted and condemned by the Democrats and MoveOn.org ought to be thrown out of this country, my friends."

"Thrown out of the country?"

Another wheel on the bus goes "clunk, clunk, clunk..."

You may not be ready to surrender, John McCain, and you may not be ready to admit defeat, but you're not ready to lead this country either. Not with views like that. It's a sign of desperation when a candidate will say anything to pump up a crowd of potential voters in a meeting hall, ignoring the bigger picture. It's myopic, and more than a little sad...

And it sure isn't presidential. Not now, not ever. Not in this country. No sir.