The OODA Loop is a concept created by an Air Force fighter pilot, Col John C Boyd, to confound the enemy by controlling his action/reaction cycle and win aerial dogfights. It has many many applications outside of combat from business to politics.
The OODA in OODA Loop stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. This is similar the Messer's action/reaction cycle.
The key is if you can control what your opponent observes you can influence how he will orient, decide and react.
This week Obama's team jumped on a gaffe by McCain that he can't remember how many houses he owns. To get inside his OODA Loop Obama reacted faster by deploying surrogates to attack McCain in various settings and released a TV ad to attack his "out of touch" status.
This causes McCain to constantly react to new observations. Since the data being supplied is Obama's message he now controls what is observed and gives him more influence over the rest of the cycle, ODA.
Now the question is where should Obama attack next?
Energy?
Healthcare?
Veterans Issues?
Foreign policy?