And earlier on McCain's bus -- the "Straight Talk Express" -- many reporters interpreted his forward-looking remarks as a harbinger of the previous night's tracking polls, which were reportedly so disastrous some on the McCain staff are convinced that something was wrong with the sample.

"Whatever happens, this race will be decided on March 7," McCain said, referring to the day many large states -- with more moderate Republican voters -- will hold their primaries including New York, California, Ohio, Georgia, Maryland and Massachusetts.

McCain also began talking about what sounded like his legacy. "Reform is now the theme of the Bush campaign," McCain said, though later he insisted that, as the leader of the reform movement, he was the logical leader to take up the fight.

No matter how many times reporters offered him opportunities to bash Bush, McCain refrained. We asked about Bush's campaign finance reform proposal, which does nothing about individual soft money contributions. We asked about the fact that "reformer with results" Bush is running an ad touting a Texas patients' bill of rights bill -- without informing viewers that he vetoed the bill.

I even asked him if he would bash Bush if we all pooled our money and gave him $100.

"$200?" McCain joked, raising his eyebrows.

Throughout the "Straight Talk Express," staffers and McCain family members whispered about the vitriol poisoning "push-poll" phone calls in both South Carolina and Michigan, which will hold its primary on Tuesday. One anecdote has a push-poller bad-mouthing the McCains for having a "black child in their family" -- a reference to the McCains' adopted 8-year-old daughter Bridget, a former resident of Mother Theresa's orphanage in Bangladesh.

McCain campaign strategists like political director "Sunny" John Weaver, Senate chief of staff Mark Salter and campaign manager Rick Davis, were visibly down Friday. Having made a major move to bring Democrats and independents into the GOP primary to vote for McCain, they were hoping -- praying -- for high turnout Saturday. If more than 400,000 voters turn out, they can win, they predicted. But South Carolina voter turnout is historically low.

"What's the weather going to be like tomorrow?" McCain asked Lindsey Graham. Graham reported that it should be sunny with scattered showers.

One of McCain's young sons suggested that the bus view a recent "Saturday Night Live" sketch which featured cast members portraying Vice President Al Gore, Sen. Bill Bradley, McCain, Bush and commentator Alan Keyes regrouping in a hotel lobby right after the New Hampshire primary. The skit mocked Bradley's heart, Gore's mendacity, Bush's frat-boy idiocy and McCain's temper and POW baggage. Everyone loved the sketch, especially the McCains. And especially the parts about McCain.

"How about when 'Bush' said, 'Oh were you a veteran? I hadn't heard!'" One McCain kid said to another. They regaled each other for awhile with their favorite lines.

"I guess I know I've arrived," McCain said of his portrayal on "SNL."

Radio host Michael Graham thinks Bush will win on Saturday, but says he's run an "idiotic campaign." Bush has run so hard right, and so negative, he sees no way for Bush to avoid trouble nationally.

Why bother trying to appeal to South Carolinians, Michael Graham asks. "These voters should not be trusted with ballot boxes," he says. "You can see it when the country was asking why did George Bush go to Bob Jones. It's because no one in South Carolina thought there was anything weird about it! It's normal to them! When they went to [South Carolina House Speaker pro tempore and McCain-backer] Terry Haskins to ask what he thought of Bush's Bob Jones visit, I thought he'd tee off. But you know what he said? 'I went to Bob Jones! I love Bob Jones!'"

"The best thing about McCain winning -- which he won't -- is what it would say about the voters," Michael Graham says. "George Bush has run the dumbest campaign I've ever seen in this state." But, he adds cynically, according to exit polls from the New Hampshire primary the higher a voter's education level, the less likely he is to vote for Bush.

"John McCain is doomed in South Carolina, where illiteracy is the norm," Graham says. "If you use that line in your story, put in parentheses that 'illiteracy' means that you don't know how to read."

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