That's it?

That's it, that's all John McCain's got apparently. Now you see why I am not overly concerned about Tom Eagleton in a skirt Sarah Palin. Obama is running against the guy at the top of the ticket and that guy is not a candidate who can win in 2008. 

One would think that after running for President for the last 10 years John McCain could have come up with a coherent narrative for his campaign. Instead it's simply that this son of an Admiral served his country, waited his turn in the U.S. Senate and is now next in line. We're supposed to just give him the presidency because... well, just because. POW!

For all the GOP talk about Obama's lack of substance it's John McCain who truly believes he should be President of the United States merely because of who he is and not because of what he stands for, what he hopes to accomplish and what his vision for the future is. As far as John McCain is concerned he is The One. 

We're 60 days out now and it's apparent that John McCain is going for broke and doubling down on the motivate the base strategy that worked for Bush and Rove in 2000 and 2004. It's going to be ugly and at times the smears will be appalling but if Barack Obama keeps his focus continues to hammer McCain as Bush's 3rd term and his Democratic surrogates continue the attacks then Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. 

McCain has bagged his strategy to win independents, he must have internal polling that shows that he is in a desperate spot. Why else throw the Hail Sarah? Why else scrap your entire campaign narrative 60 days out? 

Elections are won on fundamentals and the fundamentals are all in line with Barack Obama. Incumbent party with tanking economy, war fatigue, significantly more registered Democrats than Republicans, significantly higher fundraising, significantly better field operations. Like a bunch of kids with ADHD the McCain campaign is obsessed with the daily media narratives and "winning" them. They don't however an over-arching message to fit their daily media fits into and no long-term plan for turning daily media wins into a winning strategy. 

We just saw the best that the McCain campaign and the GOP have and it ain't enough to win this election.