Memo to the McCain Campaign

Your mission is to recapture the initiative within a week by changing tactics. What you’re doing isn’t working. You need a surge, and soon. So how do you do that? Run new ads? Folks are weary of ads. That won’t help. Hold press conferences to state positions? The old big media won’t cover them. You’ll be talking into a vacuum. Wait for the next debate? Forget about it. By then, the election will be essentially over and your candidate the loser. Somehow you have to make news that can’t be ignored by those who want you to lose. Consider this.

---

First, have McCain name those most responsible for the Freddie Mac–Fannie Mae fiasco. And then, while a shocked old big media is reeling over that, have him incrementally rollout his intended key cabinet members. Here’s your basic problem. Your candidate is fighting with Marquis of Queensbury Rules while the Obama Campaign is not following any rules except to do and say what it takes to win. If you don’t change tactics, McCain will continue to sink in the polls. Obama and the Democrats are vulnerable with regard to responsibility for the current financial ordeal. But voters, today, hear no difference between what the two candidates are saying about it. And, both Obama and McCain voted for the Senate’s version of a bailout. They look like Tweedledee and Tweedledum on that issue. Meanwhile, the taxpayers are steaming mad. McCain can’t establish his credentials as a reformer if he’s not a fighter. Teddy Roosevelt is his hero, but he’s acting more like Mr. Rogers, afraid to offend anyone in his Congressional neighborhood. As McCain names those primarily responsible for the Mae-Mac fiasco, he should also begin identifying who his key advisors will be. Adults know that the presidency isn’t a person, it’s a bureaucracy. Any effective presidency is dependent on competent key people. So, who will be the key members of a McCain administration's bureaucracy? Start with the key person of the moment? Have him name his choice for Secretary of the Treasury. McCain said he’d fire Cox. Fine. Draw and quarter Cox. We couldn’t care less out here! Who does McCain propose to put in the key fiscal positions? Tell us now, and tell us soon. How about Mitt Romney. He understands the markets and bailouted the Olympics once. Then, four days later, he names his designated Secretary of Defense. Say, someone like former Secretary of the Navy and 9/11 Commission member John Lehman. Then, a week after that, he names his choice for Secretary of State. Joe Lieberman would represent something of a semi-bipartisan approach. McCain must take the initiative. Keep it. And not give it up. By giving voters a pantheon of personalities to consider, he’d force Obama to reveal who his key people will be. For example, if Susan Rice is to replace Condi Rice, let’s have a look at her. (Folks may not like what they see.) Obama’s key people will either be retreads from liberal Democrats, or nearly unknowns. In any case, flush Obama out. Right now he’s hiding. We're in the late rounds and your guy's behind on points. You’re running out of time.