Steve Hayes has a delicious piece in the new Standard from McCain's election night in Phoenix to a road trip after to Vegas with a group of campaign aides:

Las Vegas — As she dealt one losing hand after another at Mandalay Bay's $10 blackjack tables early Wednesday evening, Trisha, a chatty dealer from Bloomington, Minnesota, changed the subject from cards to Barack Obama.



"Ohhhh ya," she said in a sing-songy northern plains accent, "me and my girlfriend are going to go to the Inauguration. It's so exciting. Did you watch that speech? Oh my God! Do you think he just made that all up as he went along? Oh my God! He's amazing!"



A businessman from Nashville, in town for a convention, rolled his eyes. "That's how Obama won," he whispered. The dealer did not hear him.



"It's just so exciting," she said, preparing to go on.



"Let's not talk about it," said Michael Goldfarb, taking a long sip from his Johnnie Walker Black on the rocks.



Another guy at the table agreed. "It's blackjack."



Until 18 hours earlier, Goldfarb had talked about little besides Barack Obama for a year. The brash Princeton graduate, a once and future colleague at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, had served as the deputy communications director for McCain's campaign. In that capacity he had been responsible for much of the aggressive response to reporters McCain staffers regarded as "in the tank" for Obama. He didn't make many friends in the media. He doesn't care.



Goldfarb made the five-hour post-election road trip to Vegas from Phoenix with two other youthful campaign veterans, Brian Rogers, who directed the campaign's rapid response, and Joe Pounder, who, as one of his colleagues put it, "actually did all of the work." They were hoping to leave the campaign behind. They couldn't.



Trisha turned over one hand after another of spirit-crushing cards. "Pounder's taking some losses," said Rogers. "Like Virginia or Nevada?" Goldfarb wondered.



I explained to Trisha that Goldfarb, Rogers, and Pounder had worked for McCain and had driven up from the McCain concession speech in Phoenix. She apologized for their continued bad luck, and someone asked if she thought she might be able to turn it around. She paused before answering.



"Yes, we can."

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