Coming home - Is McCain really where he wants to be now?

McCain obviously sees great merit in being the underestimated fighter, which will come back with a vengeance. So when the polls and the media describe his chances as slim to none, that is just fine because that is the battleground that he feels at home in. That is at least what he claims and there are things in his biography that would support this claim: His experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam would seem to be a defining and life changing experience as it has been often been pointed out.

The primary experience
McCain had ample opportunity to relive any down-and-out experiences while fighting for the Republican nomination. Having lost to Bush in 2000 and campaigned for him in 2004 he had launched his "Straight Talk Express" only to encounter fundraising problems. He had supported the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act which turned a lot of potential donors away from making contributions. The Straight Talk Express was sputtering down the road, down to mere fumes in the tank but very determined to make progress. The Arizona Senator was written off by his fellow candidates and the national media in August but continued to plug along outside of the spotlight, smartly focusing almost all of his time and resources on New Hampshire. Here he won a narrow victory over Mitt Romney and with frontrunner status money was no longer a real issue. In a much divided field of candidates McCain eked out an early but narrow victory.


The quack mire that is the 2008 election
When Obama and Clinton was still fighting over the nomination McCain had a long period of unopposed campaigning, that strangely didn’t bring him much in terms of "inevitability" or just nice poll numbers: As it got more and more clear that Obama would be the presumptual nominee McCain started sliding from a leading position in the polls and when Obama actually clinched the nomination he was already leading the polls. We would be into July before the trend reversed and the timing is again significant: It was just after Obama’s very successful tour of Iraq and Europe, where he had the skill and luck to seem very presidential in the televised speeches and photo opps. As Obama grew in posture McCain started to get into his game. From August until mid September he had significant progress and not even the Democratic Convention could make more than a slight dent in this progress. And McCain would easily fight back with a bold move in his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate: A young and unknown one term governor from Alaska whose brightest qualification seemed to be that she shared McCain’s underdog instincts: She was the hockey-mum that had beaten the system and defeated the establishment in Alaska.

But then the Wall St. Meltdown put a sudden halt to McCain’s progress: In the face of national disaster there was a call for a strong leader who could turn the situation around. Not only did the situation help the "no-drama" Obama campaign, but perhaps more important: McCain was now out of his right element and had a choice to make: Either stand back and let the grown-ups deal with the crisis, something that would distract the attention of potential donors, diminish his standing and soak energy out of his campaign as they were trying to stay relevant. Or jump in head-first and try to find a role for himself in the complicated web of financial transactions, bail-out plans and public perception of what was going on. Suddenly the underdog had no relevance.

Perhaps this does explain why McCain can claim that he got Obama just where he wants him to be: Obama might lead in the polls but more significantly McCain is now back to being behind in the polls! Could it be that he actually does prefer the narrow narrative of a losing position and a sudden breakout to actual chances of winning the White House as it has been his aim for a decade now? Is McCain trying to reenact his escape from a mud hole prison in Vietnam, just to feel comfortable with the fight that he is in? Could this be his way of dealing with sleazy lies that have emanated from his campaign and at times have made him look disgusted with the kind of "support" that it has won him, famously in the form of assertions that "Obama is an Arab"? Is gaining the moral high ground more important to winning for McCain? Some might see that as something like a lost cause. But more importantly some - republican operatives and even McCain’s own campaign staffers - might see it as nothing but weakness. Despicable, repulsive, immoral, indecent, abhorrent, and repugnant weakness. Where McCain sees himself as forever the underdog, they see him as a looser and turn on him in disgust. It is not only moderates like ret. Gen. Colin Powell and Scott McClellan, the former spokesperson of the White House that seems to be leaving ship with endorsements for Obama. It is not only down ticket candidates like Elizabeth Dole who stresses that the Democrats should not have "complete control of government" - i.e. presupposing that McCain will indeed loose to Obama.

Most remarkable though is the way that Sarah Palin does not seem to support McCain’s positions on issues like robo-calls, constitutional ban on all abortion, constitutional ban on all gay marriage or government funded stem cell research, Might Sarah Palin be looking for a national role beyond the 2008 campaign? One that doesn’t include the Arizona Senator? It’s hard to really know by now but keep looking for signs that the campaign handlers are loosing control over Palin when she interacts with the press.

As for McCain, he might be happy with his role when this is over and I would be the first to congratulate him on an honorable campaign for the glory of the underdog. Yes Sir!

IS McCain where he wants to be? I thought that he was saying that he has Obama right where he wants to be? What honorable campaign? :shrug: