The home stretch, how McCain could win

Lets get one thing clear, both are good candidates. In 2000 I said that McCain was the only Republican I would ever vote for. Although it's been said many times, the McCain of today is not the same as the McCain of 2000.

I voted for Obama because I believe he is the better on issues I care about (environment, alternative energy, new direction to U.S. foreign policy, but to be fair I question his lack of support for free trade). I'll let Fareed Zakaria put forth a much better case than I can in making the case: http://fareedzakaria.com/articles/articles.html. I agree with Zakaria wholeheartedly that McCain is out of step with the times on the financial crisis. He is stuck in the thinking of the 80's put forth by Reagan, and that era is over.

So I was thinking the other day, is there any way that McCain can win short of besides coordinated blizzard in all areas that lean Democratic? For one the Ayers story is too late and wrongheaded, if he hammered it 3 months ago it may have stuck but trying it when the economy is in the toilet won't work.

Well the thing that he has to do is what he has failed to do so far in his campaign. He needs to come across with a clear message and stick to it. He got a gift from "Joe the plumber" the other day. I think he needs to make taxes and fiscal responsibility his theme. Say, "For too long we have spent ourselves into the ground, if I'm elected we will cut spending in all areas. It will be painful. But we have to do it and in the end it will help us escape this crisis." He needs to then convene a huge meeting of influential economic minds to look at the crisis and name which ones would be in his cabinet.

Next he needs to do something bold that breaks from the Republican party (and stick to it). For example, say let's have the government take more responsibility for health care or join Obama and say let's talk to Iran. If he did those things, and made his campaign about them by answering every question with a reference to those things while having surrogates hammer these points I think he could improve his position.

The problem is that by doing this and changing his positions it will only feed more into the "erratic" label that he has been stuck with. But at this point there is no choice.

The biggest problem is McCain has been unable to settle on a consistent message and stick to it. He had a few months when Obama and Clinton were duking it out to raise money, get a lead, and get a consistent message. He couldn't do it. For that, and a lack of a unified campaign team, he's paying the price. I can only imagine the result if someone who cannot organize a campaign team was elected to run the country.