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It's hard to say whether the McCain campaign's constantly shifting messages are a structural deficiency produced by the campaign's inability to get traction amidst a tanking economy and failed war or the product of an erratic candidate and news-cycle obsessed campaign staff. Either way, they've got the attention span of a gnat. Just yesterday, Jon Cohn was worrying that they had finally grasped the contours of the moment and were " focusing relentlessly on the economy." This morning, I looked at the World Worker's Daily Wall Street Journal and learned that "Sen. John McCain on Wednesday sought to steer the presidential-campaign conversation to national security." Meanwhile, Ambers looks at the five separate message McCain offered yesterday:
1. Gov. Sarah Palin's big energy speech. (Energy independence; Palin's competence)2. McCain's national security event in Tampa. (Obama's not ready to be commander-in-chief.)3. The Joe The Plumber tour. (Regular Americans support McCain; Obama will raise taxes)4. Obsessing over William Ayres and Prof. Khalidi, the Los Angeles Times tape, etc. (Obama's dangerous associations)5. Obama and his hundreds of millions in "undocumented" donations. (Obama the unknown).These sorts of headlines do not make me think McCain is on the verge of a roaring comeback.
