By MILF, I mean "Maverick I'd Like to Fire". Ok, so maybe you have a different meaning for MILF. To each his own.
To put this race to bed, once and for all, the Obama campaign needs to do more to dispel John McCain's "maverick" moniker. The McCain campaign keeps using that word because it resonates with people who've supported McCain in the past like it's some sort of Pavlovian response.
I have some friends who are Republicans that are to the point of despising George Bush, but still plan to vote for the Maverick, John McCain come November 4th. Why, you ask. Well, I'll tell ya (*wink*). You see, they believe that McCain is pandering to the far right with his choice of VP and NeoCon rhetoric. They firmly believe that once he's elected, he'll go back to being their good ol' maverick that they first fell in love with during the 2000 campaign.
While I appreciate the Obama campaign's efforts with keatingeconomics.com and mclobbyist.com, we need more of an effort to prove that McCain is neither a maverick nor an outsider. There are a couple of ways to go about this:
First, the Obama campaign could create a positive Ad for McCain touting all the ways that McCain represents four more years of failed Bush administration policies. Make it look like a pro-McCain ad with the satirical bent that it is advocating four more years of failure. Then, three-quarters of the way through, break in with Obama saying "Wait a minute, who wants more of that?" followed by why an Obama administration would be different.
Second, create another website devoted to all the ways John McCain says he's a maverick, but isn't. The TV ad could direct people to the site. The campaign can camp on Google searches for "Maverick" with Google AdWords as well.
Lastly, Obama should prepare to tear at the fabric of the Maverick image in every possible way during the third and final debate. Some things Obama did last night, like pointing out all of McCain's votes against alternative energy, were an excellent start. This shold be developed further.