mccain_060003.jpg, originally uploaded by amanda koster.

I wouldn’t want to be working for John McCain today. Up to 50 staffers (and perhaps more) lost their jobs today, others are taking a pay cut and the campaign manager won’t collect a salary for the next two months. Such is the life of the one-time Republican frontrunner’s presidential bid.

Marc Ambinder has all the details of the campaign’s cash problem. It’s not that McCain drastically underperformed in fundraising in the second quarter — $11.2 million isn’t stellar, but it’s also not horrible. The problem seems to be the campaign’s free-spending ways. That’s surprising for a man who preaches fiscal discipline at his day job.

Many pundits might think this is the beginning of the end of the McCain campaign. I don’t think he’s done yet, but he would certainly need to mount one of the most remarkable comebacks imaginable to get out of this hole.

UPDATE — 10:59 p.m.: I contacted my friend Patrick Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits earlier today to inquire if he still had a job. “Yes,” he replied. Hynes is the best asset the McCain campaign has right now. It’s a good decision to keep him on the team.