We won weeks ago!

Huffington Post has a sneak preview of the upcoming Newsweek Election project. Be sure to pick up a copy tomorrow. The basic idea of this project goes thusly:

Newsweek has released highlights of its Special Election Project, which allowed reporters to gather behind-the-scenes information on the presidential campaigns with an agreement that none of their reporting would be published until after Election Day.

Check out the page on HuffPo for some shocking things we never knew about - like foreign spies stealing info from both campaigns, and the fact that McCain and Palin BARELY spoke throughout the election.

But among all of the shocking facts I wish I had known, this one resonated (read kicked me in the yarbles) most of all:

On the Sunday night before the last debate, McCain's core group of advisers--Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, adman Fred Davis, strategist Greg Strimple, pollster Bill McInturff and strategy director Sarah Simmons -- met to decide whether or not to tell McCain that the race was effectively over, that he no longer had a chance to win. The consensus in the room was no, not yet, not while he still had "a pulse."

Wow. Poor Sad Grampa McCain. They knew it. Each of them. And they couldn't tell the poor old guy, fearing he might go rogue and abandon all the things they made him say that compromised any actual bit of Maverick he had in him way back when.

Oh, and I liked this too:

Palin asked to speak along with McCain at his Arizona concession speech but campaign strategist Steve Schmidt vetoed the request.

Poor Sarah. Try it again in 2012, those screaming crazies in Arizona will be there with MILF t-shirts and lipstick smeared stuffed bulldogs (and bells on).

Check out the first chapter here.