What McCain Did't Do

Greg Sargent:

On reflection, last night's debate is best understood by what McCain failed to do do. With the dynamic of the race hardening daily in Obama's favor, McCain needed to force a moment where Obama's supposed inexperience and lack of global knowledge jarred viewers into a sudden sense that putting him in charge is risky and dangerous -- hence McCain's repetition of that word.

He didn't do that. At all.

A Dog Chasing Cars

Ezra Klein compares McCain to the Joker. Key Quote:

Over the past few weeks, he's proven himself so erratic and risk-prone that if he can simply modulate his tone and refrain from accidentally asking Lehrer for a fourth-quarter time out or a third lifeline, the audience will be comforted. The expectations are low, and in some ways, that's a victory. But on another level, it's an incredibly damning judgment, and evidence of how far McCain has fallen.

A Quote From A Former McCain Advisor

"It just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology. In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain," Craig Shirley. (via Andrew Sullivan)

Obama Pulls Ahead

Obama has pulled ahead in several swing state polls, causing CNN to add Michigan to "leaning Obama." FiveThirtyEight.com has several traditional Republican states, Colorado and Virginia, as leaning Obama and puts him at 74.7% odds of winning the election. Key quote:

On the eve of the first Presidential Debate, Barack Obama is perhaps in as strong a position in the polls as he has been all year, now projecting to win the election 74.7 percent of the time. Both the state and the national polls that have come out within the past 48 hours have generally been quite favorable to Obama, and suggest that he may gained an additional point or so above and beyond his "Lehman Leap" from last week.

This puts McCain in the difficult position of having to play catch up. To do so, his campaign would need to be extremely disciplined and consistent for the next month. These are all things that the McCain campaign has not been in the last two weeks.

What Is McCain Thinking?

There has been much debate about what the McCain campaign was thinking in saying that it had suspended the campaign (while it didn't actually do this) and trying to postpone the debate. McCain has been extremely inconsistent in the last two weeks, and determining what the real reasons behind anything the campaign does might mean is extremely difficult. The behavior is, to say the least, bizarre. There are some theories, and none of them are particularly encouraging. Whatever the real reason, it reeks of cynicism. I suspect the debate tonight and how it plays out over the next days will provide us a lot of information about which way the election will swing. Right now, the McCain campaign is in free fall, incoherent and increasingly bizarre. Is it possible for McCain to stop the bleeding?

McCain Will Show

I'm surprised, but pleased, by the lack-luster reports of McCain's decision to appear at the debates tonight in Oxford, Mississippi. Despite his weighted efforts to show Americans he will undertake part of the burden to create a solution for the United States' financial crisis, reports show McCain hasn't done a whole lot of contributing... something tells me the meetings and solution-propositions could have continued just fine without him. It's also strange that this take-lead, postpone-debates, economy-first attitude is exuding from the man who admittedly is not strong in economics. Furthermore, his economic advisers did not have much to say in part of their contribution.

Nonetheless, I can't wait to see tonight's debate.

... and thank you to grace us, Sen. McCain.

McCain Blames the SEC

McCain is blaming the SEC Chairman for the financial meltdown. Stephen Bainbridge responds.

McCain's Interview

A partial transcript of McCain's interview with Union Radio.

McCain And Spain

The blogosphere was alive last night, confused about what John McCain meant by saying that he wouldn't meet with the Spanish Prime Minister. Today, his campaign attempted to clear the confusion by confirming that McCain was not committing to meeting with Prime Minister Zapatero. There is no doubt now that McCain was not confused about who he was talking about but was indicating that he would continue cool relations with Spain that the US has had since Zapatero came to power in 2004 and removed Spanish troops from Iraq. This contradicts an earlier pledge to normalize relations with the NATO ally:

"I would like for [President Zapatero] to visit the United States. I am very interested not only in normalizing relations with Spain but in obtaining good and productive relations with the goal of addressing many issues and challenges that we have to confront together."

This adds to a number of foreign policy inconsistencies and gaffes that McCain has made. Perhaps this isn't quite a gaffe, but it's certainly bad policy. Spain is a NATO ally and the 8th largest economy in the world. Sure, Zapatero is a left to center leader, but it would give us more credibility if we associated with democracies that have different beliefs than us, especially if our Grand Strategy is spreading democracy across the globe (though it's probably safe to say that there is no Grand Strategy.) And since Spain is still fighting with us in Afghanistan, and that's where Osama is, and McCain is committed to following Osama to the gates of hell, it would probably be wise to talk to an ally without preconditions. McCain couldn't have forgotten that al Qaeda is responsible for a major terrorist attack in Madrid, in name if not in personnel. This makes it appear as though the only thing that McCain is actually willing to committ to is winning the White House. I don't think that qualifies as putting your country first.