McCain Driving Debate, But Some Fear Swerving: McCain's "schizophrenic" campaign

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: McCain Driving Debate, But Some Fear Swerving
GOP Insiders Want More Consistent Theme
By Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, June 22, 2008; A06

In the two weeks since Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee, John McCain has demonstrated a knack for driving the daily political debate, forcing his opponent to respond to a challenge to meet in town hall debates, accusing him of being "delusional" about terrorism and saying he flip-flopped on public financing for his campaign. But even as McCain's strategists claim tactical victories, Republicans outside the campaign worry that underlying weaknesses in its organization and message are costing him valuable time to make the case for his own candidacy.

Allies complain that the campaign has offered myriad confusing themes that lurch between pitching McCain as a committed conservative one day and an independent-minded reformer the next, while displaying little of the discipline and focus that characterized President Bush's successful campaigns. Several Republican supporters of the presumptive nominee said they were puzzled by a series of easily avoidable mistakes, including sloppy political stagecraft and poorly timed comments that undercut McCain's reputation as a maverick.

The grumbling intensified last week when McCain launched a television commercial declaring that he had "stood up" to Bush on global warming, on the same day he traveled to Houston to call for lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling. Critics said the ad's message about the differences between McCain and Bush was lost when Bush endorsed the same coastal drilling proposal the next day.

"I'm baffled that the McCain guys have somehow managed to take a guy who practically had 'reform' tattooed to his forehead and turned him into the bastion of the status quo," said one Republican strategist, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity. The veteran strategist, who has not been asked to join the campaign, said the "devastating me-too chorus from Bush and Cheney" on oil drilling is a "great example of the schizophrenia that surrounds their campaign."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/21/AR2008062101570_pf.html

[polichick]

1. I think the campaign is simply reflecting the instability of McInsane himself.

[Fovea]

2. a guy who practically had 'reform' tattooed to his forehead

Note to McCain guys--

It doesn't matter what is tattooed on the forehead, it's what is or isn't in the brain behind it that matters.

You'd think that FlubDubya would have taught the wide stance party that already.

[rocktivity]

3. If McCain is "driving the debate," it's because reporters like these

are scrambling to clean up his messes while straining for excuses to badmouth Obama.

:headbang:
rocknation