It’s a weird time in a weird campaign. A once in a lifetime economic event just five weeks from election day. Rebellious house republicans vote down their own President’s rescue plan and blame the democrats for its failure to get passed. An African-American candidate about 5 points up and fighting a new-style of campaign based around the Internet and getting new voters into those booths on 4 November. An Alaskan Governor just about to take part in the most important vice-presidential debate in decades, who got her first passport just last year. And a crazy brave republican candidate who must convince voters that he is a ‘maverick’ and not really responsible for the Bush legacy of a crapped economy and a pointless war.
Look at it like that and you wouldn’t want to call it. But you do get the sense that it could break Obama’s way at anytime because it’s McCain that is taking all the risks and playing catchup all the time. From choosing a wildcard VP to suspending his campaign to work on the bailout deal, McCain is throwing everything at Obama but Obama just continues to comeback in the polls. McCain’s gutsy tactics can get him a lift for a week or a day but Obama comes back all the time.
That’s because McCain is fighting an outgoing tide. Unfettered markets have lost their appeal, the Iraq war drags on and America is losing it’s lustre as a superpower and McCain the old war hero looks like the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
