The McCain campaign is about to do it again. Throughout the primaries and general campaigns, McCain keeps returning to his Top Gun fighter jock mentality. He does something unexpected to throw off his opponent and then looks for an opening created by the confusion.
He is priming himself for a repeat.
The nomination of Sarah Palin and the "suspension" of his campaign are two recent examples of McCain’s fighter jock mentality. Luckily Obama kept his eye on the ball and did not overreact to either. With the Palin nomination, McCain did make dramatic gains initially, blunting the bounce from Obama’s historic acceptance speech. Obama and Biden kept quiet. Had they gone on the offensive trying to draw attention to Palin’s lack of readiness, she may have drawn sympathy. Instead, Obama allowed Palin to hang herself. In the long run, McCain’s ploy cost him because whatever excitement the original introduction created has been blunted by the increasingly apparent fact that she is not capable of carrying the weight to election day.
Obama essentially ignored the campaign "suspension" and it was seen for what it was. Had Obama reacted differently, perhaps agreeing to a suspension, chances are we would be seeing a shift to McCain. If I were more cynical, I would posit that the "suspension" was a deliberate attempt to cancel the Vice Presidential debate which at this point has the potential of being an embarrassment of Admiral Stockdale proportions. If you remember, McCain proposed to postpone the first Presidential debate to the VP slot and reschedule the VP debate to some undetermined time. At a minimum it would have given Palin more time to prepare.
Now he about to pull another one.
McCain has purposely remained coy on the Bailout. I am confident his plan is to oppose the Bailout once there is enough commitment to make sure it passes, then to use it as a campaign issue against Obama. Polls have shown that a majority of the voters are against this (including several contributors here) and it fits in well with McCain’s sudden populist conversion. It also gives McCain an opportunity to show his "maverickiness" ---I use this word with the same connotation as "truthiness"--- by defying his party and W.
With all of the dogfighting maneuvers(in the WWI aviation sense, not the Michal Vick)that McCain has been pulling lately, Obama has been the one to remain calm, steady, even-keeled (mixed metaphor?) and, yes, presidential. And the polls show increasing confidence in Obama’s ability to lead. Hopefully McCain’s upcoming opposition to the bailout will be seen for what it is, another last ditch maneuver to get Obama off his six.