It should come as a shock to absolutely no one that John McCain's campaign has been, well, inadequate. After all he won the Republican nomination not because of any sort of superior organization or message as much as he simply outlasted the Romneys and Giulianis to win by default (not unlike John Kerry did on our side four years ago, actually).
Then he picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. No need to rehash the implications of that here.
Then he ignored economic issues in the wake of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. He derided Barack Obama's decision to not accept public campaign funds as a broken promise, and then turned around and called the privately-funded Obama campaign - now the nation's third-largest advertiser behind only AT&T and Verizon - "socialist."
Well, evidently McCain is going with the credo, "if it's broken, continue to run it into the ground."
Today the Washington Post reported McCain will cut back on the vaunted Republican GOTV effort in favor of ... more ads.
You know, those same ads that haven't done squat for him. The same ads people are sick to death of by now. Meanwhile, in light of good numbers for Obama in early voting state after state, he's cutting the one apparatus that might do him some good at this point.
This week, a number of veteran GOP operatives who orchestrate door-to-door efforts to get voters to the polls were told they should not expect to receive plane tickets, rental cars or hotel rooms from the campaign.
"The desire for parity on television comes at the expense of investment in paid boots on the ground," said one top Republican strategist who has been privy to McCain's plans. "The folks who will oversee the volunteer operation have been told to get out into the field on their own nickel."
One wonders how many Republicans will do so if it's not a junket for them, knowing full well they'll probably lose.
I'd say this is a clarion call to the Obama campaign. McCain is not going to challenge us on GOTV, so for the next four days it's time to turn and burn and break this thing wide open.
My friends, we have them right where we want them.