While Josh Marshall sees the McCain campaign staggering incoherently, Nate Silver is predicting an attempted reboot:While Josh Marshall sees the McCain campaign staggering incoherently, Nate Silver is predicting an attempted reboot:
Something is a little bit funny when Matt Drudge is treating 1-2 point gains for McCain in the Rasmussen and Zogby tracking polls as "BREAKING" news. Naturally, Drudge ignores other results like the just-released ABC/WaPo poll that show Obama continuing to gain ground. [...]
The McCain campaign is planning on a major "reboot" of its campaign in some point in advance of Wednesday night's debate. This will take on something of the form that Bill Kristol advocates in his must-read Monday AM piece in the Times, including some combination of (i) pledging to run a positive campaign; (ii) firing/demoting Steve Schmidt and or/Rick Davis; (iii) apologizing for his campaign's tone. In fact, Kristol's column may be something of a trial balloon for this strategy.
Silver concludes the Drudge hype is part of an attempt to make it look like McCain is capitalizing on new momentum and surely not making a desperate attempt to stuntify their way back into contention.
But according to Reuters this morning, McCain will be in Virginia Beach today with no new themes, no new ideas, and no clue how to close his growing gap with Barack Obama.
UPDATE by Lowell: What next, is McCain going to "suspend" his campaign again like he did NOT do the last time? Is he going to ditch Sarah Barracuda? Is he going to pull all his negative advertising off the air? Is he going to apologize for his "playing with fire" and inciting crowds to potential violence? If not, who cares.Wednesday night will most likely be the denouement of this campaign -- Obama will have sealed the deal with 90-95% of the electorate that will vote for him. The final three weeks will otherwise be spent selling his personal story (the new ads are great) and also outworking McCain on the road.
This McCain campaign is an evil joke. It's like igor on mushrooms. As John Kerry aptly described it in Denver: pathetic, desperate, insulting to voters.
John McCain has betrayed every principle, broken every vow, and in the process proven himself both craven and incapable of leadership.
It's a shame that we will need his voters in order to effect the monumental change necessary to fix the Armageddon brought on by Bush, McCain and the Conservative movement. It would be satisfying to spend a long time driving a stake through the heart of these invidious failures, as it is we will need their help. On second thought, perhaps their real value to change will be their example of failure, and the narrative of disaster through betrayal they embody.
McCain has no choice but to ride this thing down. He has destroyed his credibility with all his recent erratic "unpresidential" behavior and he knows that the only way to avoid being a footnote to history is to glide into a significant loss. He's stuck with his bad choices in campaign strategists and running mate. We are now only days from McCain's "old soldiers never die" swansong...and the beginning of the great Republican purge. Look for Kristol to make an attempt to be relevant in the New Republican Party.
:)
More important, you can't blame the campaign without blaming its leader.
If Obama has a better run, more effective campaign that continues to out organize and out perform the opposition's team - and has done so consistently through a long slog through primaries up to the general election, doesn't that say something important about his leadership ability?
By all reports Obama isn't handled. He put together a powerful team and leads it effectively. John McCain's campaign has always been erratic, floundering, and has already melted down and been replaced once. Doesn't that also say something about his leadership? And do you want that type of leadership in the White House?
Also, add in a 47%-45% lead for Obama in Nevada courtesy of Mason-Dixon, and a 50%-40% national lead courtesy of Democracy Corps.
Yeah, I'd want to hit "Ctr-Alt-Del" too!