Tonight is the last McCain-Obama debate and McCain goes into it needing a game-changer; three polls out today have him down by 14, nine and 10 respectively. To compound McCain’s problem, the economic news is so bad that it is virtually impossible for a message on any subject other than the economy to cut through.
The Obama campaign is keen to spin that McCain is panicking and that is how they’ll likely respond to any bold new initiatives McCain proposes or any attacks he unleashes on Obama. McCain’s best strategy might be, as was suggested on Meet the Press on Sunday, a bit of straight talk: telling the American people just how they got into this financial mess without sugaring the pill.
This is, obviously, a risky strategy. People might not like being told that they had a role in creating this crisis and that it is not just the fault of greedy bankers. But it would show that McCain as president would always level with the American people and that could have an impact.
There is no safe way back into the game for McCain now. He needs to be prepared to take risks, something he has done throughout his career, but the risks he takes must not appear to be gimmicks.
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