Like me, you must have noticed McCain dressing casually at lots of his recent events...open neck shirts, sporty blazers etc. There must be a reason for this, courtesy of his handlers, but it ain't working out like intended.
Here's my take: advisors at the McCain campaign have admitted McCain's age is turning off voters - and they realise especially how damaging this factor is with the wild card of the unhinged wingnut VP candidate scarily poised to step up if Mac snuffs it in office. This double whammy - McCain's age coupled with Palin's unsuitabilty - is working deeply against their candidate.
So the advisors have decided to try to dress McCain younger in a last-ditch attempt to remake his image. I can just imagine the discussion: "Let's show the outdoor McCain". "Yeah, let's bring out his natural dynamism. The man's a warrior. We've gotta project that" etc etc. Hence the "open neck checked shirt" look of the last fortnight, from the CNN interview onwards. And now the "black jerkin" he wore for campaign rallies over the weekend.
But they're getting it hopelessly wrong. These duds just make McCain look like [fanfare] GRANDAD AT THE DISCO. And deeply unpresidential. If you need yet another slice of evidence that the McCain-Palin campaign has lost it, Mac's new Grandad-At-The-Disco image is it.