For the first debate, Barack Obama called McCain's campaign "suspension" bluff and called his ruse out. It was a monumental failure for McCain and that base that was on Cloud 9 over Sarah Palin was as deflated as a raucous crown at a sporting event watching the visiting team take back the lead after a stupid mistake by the home team.
Obama is calling the shots again and it looks like McCain is taking the bait. Obama is controlling the press and controlling the rhetoric at this point with moves like this. There is no hiding from any information that has been discussed about him. he is only issuing challenges. He has the role that McCain should have taken but clearly lacked the strategic and rhetorical foresight to manage. He is on his heels and can only react as this quote reveals:
"You have another debate coming up. The final debate. Many of your supporters are eager for you to confront Senator Obama on the Bill Ayers relationship in particular. Hillary Clinton even brought this up during the primary. Sen. Obama says you should have the guts to do it in person. So will you?" McCain was asked by KMOX's Mark Reardon.
"Oh yeah," said McCain. "You know, I was astonished to hear him say that he was surprised for me to have the guts to do that. Because the fact is that the question did not come up in that fashion so–you know–I think he's probably ensured that it will come up this time."
You have to do one of two things: 1) find the opponent's weakness and use that against them, or 2) find that opponent's strength and attack it head on. McCain has miscalculated Obama's weakness and all he has seen is Obama shredding his defense. In American football terms, Obama is "controlling the line of scrimmage" at this point and he is dictating the pace and direction of both campaigns. He has rightly identified McCain's strategic mis-steps and cashed in each time with careful sleight of hand and baiting his opponent in order to get him to flinch.
If McCain brings this up, does he think that Obama does not have a prepared articulaed response to zing right back at him? If McCain brings up Ayers in the debate, he loses becuase he pulls attention away from the issues at hand like wars, fear, and lost money and jobs. If he does not mention it, it will be a target for Obama as only a tactic to pull people away from these important issues because McCain has no credibility with them. Either way, McCain is already a few points behind in this debate long before kick-off.
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