perhaps a good strategy to run with starting at about the 6 week mark. But 3 weeks? When your negatives are pretty low? meh.

McCain has one more free shot at massive message control, during the debate. But who will we see. The "I'll whip his you-know-what" McCain, the "the gloves are going to come off" McCain?

Lurching is about right.

Nothing left but a knock-out punch...

Problem is, in the 12th round, and you're tired, and your opponent is essentially a counter-puncher who is not likely to set up in the middle of the ring and let you wail away?

Plus, I believe with the prime time TV buy, AxelRod is sitting on HIS October surprise: Some major announcements, cabinet ideas, SOMETHING that will blow the newscylces for McCain.

That is what this is, an attempt to grab the media?

I think it's BOTH too soon and too late, as I believe Axelrod has a plan to abolutely dominate the last two weeks of the coverage.

Last week, he was chatting with Palin to pump up the Rev. Wright stuff and now he's saying "Don't go negative."

You can tell this clown was Dan Quayle's chief of staff, can't you?

Nate's got an analysis of this strategy up on 538. This is the key for me:

What the McCain campaign really, really doesn't want is for this move to be portrayed as desperate stunt. McCain has already developed a reputation for being a bit erratic under pressure -- the ABC/Post poll now shows that a 48-45 plurality of voters trust Obama to handle an "unexpected major crisis" -- and Bill Burton and Robert Gibbs must be foaming at the mouth waiting to spin something like this.

The only way for McCain to do that is for him to convince the media that he already had the momentum. The campaign will probably try and claim the moral highground, perhaps contrasting McCain's repudiation of the woman who called Obama an "Arab" on Friday against John Lewis's comments from Saturday. They will suggest that McCain found his voice, and made the "maverick" move of telling off the Beltway Republicans who were urging him to go for blood. They will suggest that the reboot is a continuation of this strategy, and that -- as the Zogby poll so obviously attests to! -- voters were already responding favorably to McCain's new tone.

The problem is that Gallup trumped him. If Gallup had shown any tightening they could spin it this way, but with Gallup and ABC/WaPo both at +10 it won't work. This doesn't work if it just looks like a desperation move from a candidate who's well behind -- and that means perception, not reality.

I imagine there was a LOT of groaning when Gallup came out today. They've got one more shot tomorrow -- if the polls tighten they could try to spin this Wednesday morning ahead of the debate. Otherwise it's a no go.

The Blue Screen of Death for you.

Is this how this guy's going to govern?

There's no reset button on the Presidency. Obama should point that out for him.

I didn't see one person of color in the room.

Let's face it - McCain is a warrior; the third in a line of a dedicated and distinguished military family.  All of his instincts in tackling problems are based on military ideation.

Graduating 5th from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy did not portend a brilliant military career, thus the jump to politics.  

His performance in Presidential elections is exhibit A in the case that effective political leadership requires a different skill set than warrior - and McCain is showing that he doesn't have it.