With the election over, the McCain campaign is in post-mortem mode. Could they really not have known what they were getting with Sarah Palin?

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

From the NYT …

Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion.

I’m not sure this has fully sunk in yet.

Is Missouri just going to keep its electoral votes?

As of 7:13 PM this evening the Virginia State Board of Elections shows Tom Perriello beating Rep. Virgil Goode by 648 votes.

TPM Reader RR is skeptical of the latest Palin leaks …

I find all this kind of amusing, but I’m skeptical of the veracity of some of these charges. Here’s why:

1. The obvious point that in a losing campaign, many folks will try to throw blame around and hope none of it’s stink gets on them;

2. Even with Mrs. Pale-in-Comparison being galactically uninformed and generally ditzy, it’s hard to believe she thought the whole of Africa was one country or that South Africa was in fact a country and not a region; and

3. These guys in the McCain camp (whatever faction of it) have been unabashedly lying each and every day for months now, and feverishly projecting their own failures and shortcomings onto their adversary.

Why the hell should anyone believe them now?

It all amounts to good entertainment, in a macabre, schadenfreudey way, but really the woman has no real future in national politics, no matter what the Limbaugh/Hannity/Perkins wing of the GOP says. A Palin 2012 shot will be a repeat of Rudy 2008.

As a big of an ignoramus as Palin clearly is, and as big a liar, I’m more than a little skeptical myself.

As you may know the Obama transition team has now set up change.gov as the new transition website. And as TPM Reader SB points out there’s already signs of the radicalism McCain and Palin warned the country about.

I’ve clipped out this section of their organization chart of the US government, which you can find linked on this page.

And as you can see, not only has the president been demoted to a position under the constitution. But the vice-president (as shown by the red arrow) has had his own fourth branch revoked and been reassigned to the executive branch …

President-elect Obama will hold his first post-election press conference at 2:30 ET. That and the day’s other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

Today’s the deadline for our Winter 2008/2009 internship program. See the details here.

Joe Lieberman is putting out word that if the Democrats don’t allow him to keep his chairmanship, he’ll take up Mitch McConnell’s invitation to join the Republican caucus. I think the answer has to be, go for it.

Says a Lieberman staffer: “Senator Lieberman’s preference is to stay in the caucus, but he’s going to keep all his options open. McConnell has reached out to him and at this stage his position is he wants to remain in the caucus but losing the chairmanship is unacceptable.”

I think much of what Lieberman did over the last year was inexcusable. But magnanimity in victory is always a virtue and usually wise. So I don’t think it’s necessary to expel him from the caucus. And perhaps there are some perks of seniority he could be allowed to retain. But allowing him to keep his chairmanship is simply unacceptable. It’s a position the Democrats hold because of the joint efforts of Democrats across the country pulling together to support Democratic policies and ideals and elect Democratic candidates. For Lieberman to enjoy the fruits of that labor after working so hard to stymie that effort would be unconscionable.

Lieberman says his position was one of conscience. And out of generosity more than reason, I’m willing to believe that. But as he so often says, you have to take responsibility for your actions.

And the simple fact is the Democrats don’t need Joe Lieberman. He’s not in a position to call anything ‘unacceptable’. The Democrats didn’t get to 60 votes or at least it now seems highly unlikely — which was his only hope to have any continued relevance or position to bargain from. And the truth is that filibuster-busting votes are often made on an ad-hoc basis rather than on a party line. In any case, there’d be no more reason to trust he’d be there as a 60th vote as a Democrat than as a Republican.

Sen. Reid should take a cue from the one his fictional predecessor once heard in telling Lieberman how it’s going to be: “My offer is this. Nothing.”