Newsweek has announced it is ceasing publication at year’s end, and the New York Times’ David Carr writes an obit.

Like the president it has –mostly– fawned over, Newsweek no longer interests the majority of Americans. Even those who might pick it up in the doctor’s office won’t buy it. It has tried all sorts of stunts, and all sorts of absurd drama, but it cannot do its basic job against rising competition. It failed. It will go away.

Like the president. The post-debate euphoria of the left will fade today as it begins to notice, as it did after Joe Biden’s debacle, that their cheers on Tuesday night did not much impress the middle of the country, and that the president has ben reduced to making binder jokes while the rest of the country talks about Libya, gas prices –and the lack of an agenda for an Obama second term. (Timothy Dalrymple explain the key debate dynamic that has greatly benefitted Mitt Romney.)

Incredibly, the president is now trying to run as an energy guy in certain counties of Ohio, and the Wall Street Journal leads the laughter.

And the focus on Libya —where the president is caught in “a bright shining lie” according to Victor Davis Hanson— is wearing down even his staunchest supporters.

You can feel, and see, the energy draining from the Obama campaign even as it swells on the the Romney/Ryan siide. The Rasmussen Reports daily tracking which shows Romney maintining his two point lead and a Rassmussen Ohio poll showing the Buckeye State at a standstill post-debate, will further demoralize the Chicago gang.

Jennifer Rubin says the Obama campaign is “off balance.” I think that’s gentle. It is in disorganized retreat and trying to find defensible lines behind which to rally. Guy Benson explains why it is very bad news that Team Obama has to deny they are pulling out of Florida, North Carolin and Virginia.

And speaking of rallies, this was Romney’s in Virginia last night:

As I discussed with Rubin last night, the Obama campaign resembles nothing so much as John McCain’s did at this point in 2008 –aware of its pending defeat, but struggling on and hoping for some enormous “game changer” to arrive. The discipline and professionalism of Team Romney minimizes that possibility, and the experience of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will prevent unforced errors.

Even if the Gallup tracking tightens a bit, the edge is so great –and the early voting during these weeks of Romney ascenbdency so significant– that the president knows and his inner circle knows there is defeat ahead. That sort of thing cannot be hidden.

Which means the last debate will be even more off-putting than the last two as a desperate incumbent again tries to make up for the lack of a record on which to run, and the failure to develop anything resembling a second term agenda. To late for that as well.

Turns out the “brain trust” in Chicago didn’t have that many brains and ought not to have been trusted.