One suspects many Liberals are identifying with the Mudville Nine about now -- down two runs in the ninth, with little more than hope and a prayer to save them from a sad trip to the showers. As the story goes, mighty Casey came to the plate, with two on and two out, all eyes waiting for their slugger to win it all with one swing of the bat.

Of course, the Mudville Nine never had their water boy tipping pitches to the opposing team, as the famous "Liberal Mole" has been doing, passing on everything from policy announcements to what Paul Martin will have for lunch a full 24 hours before they happen.

Nor did the local constabulary walk onto the field in the middle of the sixth to ask the third baseman if he was involved in insider trading before the game.

But much as Casey watched his first two pitches sail past him in that fateful ninth, so has Martin let two golden opportunities to turn the game around pass him by.

The final debates were pegged as Martin's moment to rise like a phoenix and revitalize a troubled campaign. Feisty, frisky, even combative, Martin came out swinging, setting a tone that might have been just the thing to build a comeback on...and then things got a little weird.

Out of nowhere, Martin suggested he'd like to scrap the notwithstanding clause, something no one in Ottawa has ever had the chutzpah to use, and no one but Martin thinks is necessary to abandon. It reeked of desperation, a policy flip-flop that opened up another flank to explain and defend.

And he let himself be goaded into calling Quebec a "nation" by Duceppe, despite frantic linguistic gymnastics to avoid it, walking away from the debates with more people shaking their heads than his hand.

Strike two went floating past on Tuesday night, with an ad campaign that could have been the home run everyone was looking for if he hadn't over-swung. For while people will talk about the risk of attack ads, question their effectiveness, and lament their use, most of the "dirty dozen" commercials were simple and slick, and would likely have been quite effective if one of them hadn't gone so far over the line.

The equivalent of a foul-tip strike that ricocheted into the stands and concussed a VIP spectator, the Martin-approved ad that seemed to suggest Harper would have the military goose-stepping down main street Canada was a slap in the face to our men and women in uniform, an insult that no amount of last-minute spin has been able to explain.

So it's down to the last strike, a situation Martin has certainly been in before. And while he's showing much of the swagger and confidence he did in 2004, this is not the same Liberal team he had behind him then, or even last month.

For if it isn't policy leaks, then it's a candidate breaking ranks. Keith Martin, the Liberal incumbent for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, has made it very clear who he thinks won't be party leader come spring, being openly defiant of the PM, in public, and in the middle of an election. Such impudence would normally be cause for banishment, but now seems merely an expression of ever-increasing sentiment among nameless party members who confide that they're already brushing up their resumes for what they see as the inevitable post-game job hunt.

And it certainly doesn't help Paul Martin's cause that rookie candidate and erstwhile Harvard professor Michael Ignatieff has quietly crept onto the field, trying to steal Martin's bat away before he can even swing, increasingly positioning himself as the Liberal's next great hope for redemption and party leader.

Ignatieff was quoted in the Toronto Star as telling a voter that he'll take a shovel to Ottawa and "try to clean up the mess," a subtle Machiavellian slight of the leader who has been trying to convince one and all that the mess has already been cleaned up.

He followed this up with a talk that was billed as "Meet Our Champion," leading a round of applause for Martin with sentiments that sounded more like a retirement sendoff than a rallying of the troops.

Martin most certainly has other ideas, but unlike in his last championship game, he's facing a more seasoned pitcher, and is supported by an ever-more-restless, disillusioned, and in some cases, impatient team. One more pitch, one more swing, one more chance, for the Liberals as for the Mudville Nine.

We all know how Casey did.