ANY good spin doctor will tell you that in politics a party has three days to make a negative story go away.
Usually this comes in the form of a rival being obliging enough to do something even more stupid or controversial.
That wasn't happening with the Barry McElduff mess. Even DUP assembly member Christopher Stalford's enormous error of judgment in trying to score points by posting a vulgar cartoon depicting the Kingsmill tragedy only served as a minor distraction.
So after a week of wall-to-wall coverage, Sinn Féin was left in a very difficult position, with their West Tyrone MP simply too big a liability.
His decision to resign, whether willingly or with a not-so-gentle shove, was something of an inevitability, especially after the moving interview with Kingsmill survivor Alan Black on RTÉ on Sunday.
While the party seem to have accepted there was no malicious intent in Barry McElduff's online antics, that was no longer the issue. Perception is everything, and the hurt his comments caused has been damaging not just to the Kingsmill families but to victims in general.
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The tough words from Declan Kearney last Monday morning appeared hollow when the sanction announced later that day was a three-month suspension for an MP that does not actually take his Westminster seat.
It also didn't help that the only explanation offered for the offensive recording was that the Carrickmore man is a bit of a fool who likes telling unfunny jokes and putting things on his head - fine if you're a circus clown, not so much if you're a senior elected public servant.
The events of last week were depressing and toxic for Northern Ireland, not just politically but for the future of all those living here.
The sectarianism, the bile, the whataboutary from those who should know better, the use of victims - people who have already suffered greatly - as a political football, was shameful.
And so last Thursday when I arrived at the BBC studios for filming of the political programme The View I was fully expecting Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd and the DUP's Edwin Poots to tear strips off each other.
Instead what followed was a quite astonishing exchange between two political rivals as Mr O'Dowd issued unequivocal condemnation of the Kingsmill attack, saying it "shamed him" as a republican.
This was reciprocated by Edwin Poots who expressed genuine sympathy for the murder of three members of Mr O'Dowd's family the night before the Kingsmill attack.
From my vantage point I could see and hear the emotion in the senior Sinn Féin man's voice. It was an exchange that I had hoped would calm the stormy waters and bring some much-needed sensitivity to the victims issue.
However, with a by-election now looming in West Tyrone and the potential of a victims' unity candidate to embarrass Sinn Féin, the chances of building on that spirit of reconciliation seem more remote than ever.
In this the 20th year since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, and with a fresh talks process about to begin, it really is make or break time for devolution here. So far the mood is not one of optimism.
Barry McElduff announces his resignation:
