In recent weeks some prominent conservative intellectuals seem to have discovered they have two hands after all. In column after column, these writers have alternately praised the virtues of John McCain and Sarah Palin and lamented their shortcomings.

The syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, for example, wrote in National Review on Sept. 26 that Governor Palin is “clearly out of her league” and should bow out of the campaign. (The conservative biweekly chose not to run a subsequent column in which Ms. Parker offered advice to Senator Barack Obama on how to win votes in Appalachia.)

On Oct. 4, one of the most influential conservative pundits, the Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, rapped Senator McCain for his “frenetic improvisation” and, in what some interpreted as an endorsement of Senator Obama, praised his “first-class intellect and a first-class temperament,” adding that these strengths “will likely be enough to make him president.”

This came after another conservative beacon, George F. Will, compared the “Palin bubble” to the irrational exuberance of the deflated high- tech and housing bubbles and said Senator McCain was “behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high” in the way he responded to the financial crisis. He all but pronounced the Republican ticket finished after the final presidential debate last Wednesday night.