Joe Trippi has a smart post on the messaging dynamics of the race, in which he concludes that the McCain campaign has effectively adjusted their message and reconstructed the debate such that "McCain is the one running against Washington now. Obama can’t just run against Bush." That seems right to me, and probably explains why I'm pretty unimpressed by Obama's new ads attacking the lobbyists atop John McCain's campaign. It's the sort of attack that any Democrat would launch against any Republican, and it scans, to me, as the type of ad that voters basically tune out. Over the past few weeks, Obama's campaign has begun to look like a typical campaign run by establishment Democrats, while McCain's campaign has looked -- for better or worse -- like a risky effort that's willing to break a few rules. In the aggregate, that's not a comparison that helps Obama.
