On Monday, I wrote:
...the McCain campaign doesn't want to lead - they're furiously, desperately trying to duck the responsibility of addressing a national crisis. How can voters trust a candidate that won't?
...
McCain, short on paths to victory and playing defense, is turning to fear...it won't work, because there's something more tangible and real to be afraid of: an uncertain economic future with a new President McCain unwilling to lead.
We expected McCain to get vicious last night, but he didn't. There's word McCain may be taking the Ayers and Wright attacks off the table. Sargent thinks that, if true, it "suggests that the McCain campaign's internal polling on how the Ayers stuff is playing is just brutal." He's probably right, but it doesn't mean the next four weeks will be ice cream and sprinkles.
If McCain had strongly opposed the bailout, he could have accomplished two crucial campaign goals at once: distance himself from Bush and tap into the populist fear and anger created by the economic crisis. But for whatever reason, he didn't pull the trigger. What's left?
So just because McCain might not entirely scorch the earth doesn't mean he'll suddenly turn substantive or positive (in fact his ads are still 100% negative). It just means he's toast.
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