John McCain embraces the role he relishes -- and predicted he would be in

It was just four weeks ago that a nip-and-tuck presidential campaign seemed to pivot in the Democratic direction -- in part because of a John McCain miscue.

After a weekend that drove home the fragile state of several leading financial institutions, McCain at a rally in Florida insisted the U.S. economy was fundamentally sound -- a claim that since then has been called into serious question.

Today, at a rally in Virginia, McCain sized up the state of the race, freely acknowledged being behind in the polls, anointed Barack Obama as a front-runner who is "measuring the drapes" at the White House -- and eagerly proclaimed, "My friends, we've got them just where we want them."

The Times' Maeve Reston was at the event and has more from McCain, including the arguments it appears the Republican will focus on during the campaign's remaining three weeks (in summary: Obama is a tax-and-spend liberal who will bend over backwards to help unions and "concede defeat" in Iraq).

As McCain -- with a smile -- cast himself in a beleaguered position and eagerly accepted the challenge, it rang a bell with us. And here's a quote he provided reporters in late June:

I'm the underdog in this race.... I'm behind. I've got to catch up and get ahead. And I expect to do that about 48 hours before the general election.

So partisans on both sides of the battle can take heed -- by his own lights, McCain has plenty of time for a stretch run.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[sharon]

So, McCain wants to keep the economy going along the way it is right now? Ouch!

[AAmcnay]

America will step up to the plate on Nov. 4th and put Mccain (the man for the job) in the whitehouse....:0)

[Gary]

Obama has certainly played up that "fundamentals" miscue, but isn't he saying the same thing in this exchange from the last debate:

Brokaw: Are you saying to Mr. Clark and to the other members of the American television audience that the American economy is going to get much worse before it gets better and they ought to be prepared for that?

Obama: No, I am confident about the American economy. But we are going to have to have some leadership from Washington that not only sets out much better regulations for the financial system.

[Judy]

In a pig's ear! Too little too late...

[Ed]

Until he gets rid of Palin, the anchor around his neck, he'll go nowhere. She was an irresponsible choice for a man of his age and history. She was his most erratic choice yet.

[olam mundo]

while it may be true that he managed to dig himself out of a hole during the Republican primary. It is also true that he is not running against very unpopular opponents such as Romney, Guliani, etc. Obama is a different cat.

[Richard]

Odd lurches and sudden scrambles as the deadline gets closer. Is that what we're looking for in a President?

[Frank]

He needs to give the "my fellow prisoners..........we need to break out of here" speech.

I don't understand why he keeps being covered in the cloak of some war hero/leader mistique? He's a Goof. This is a guy who graduated last in his class at Annapolis, wrecked two fighter jets and crashed and ended up a prisoner, was incarcerated during the Vietnam war protests and most of the civil rights movement. The real heroes are the one's that never came back or came back with missing body parts, not McCain. And he's still a Goof but a lot angrier and short tempered, too scary to have in the role of a President of the USA.

[Jerry]

I'm a McCain supporter and I believe he had better do something fast. It would appear he lacks the drive to become president. He seemed lethargic at the last debatem if you can actually refer to it as a debate. He was so nice to Obama, I thought they needed to go get a room.

[PuWeiTA]

"My friends, we've got them right where we want them."

McCain is heeding to his buddy Clayton Williams "As long as it’s inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it."

[John]

Underdog = Older Christian white man, part of the establishment, millions in the bank, and whose party in power for the last eight years.

Oh yeah, sure, that makes a lot of sense, just like the rest of his campaign.

B.S.

[edward elliot]

So it's character attacks and almost bordering on racist when McCain calls into question obama's associations.
However Rep. Lewis is given the opportunity by the media to clarify his 'governor wallace' statements.
The media doesn't call into question Biden's no vote on the first gulf war and also his disastrous position on a partioned iraq, which is no longer on his web site. They do not report on Messrs. Dodd, Schumer, Franks, Walters, the primary architects of the fannie and freddie debacle and how local banks were stiff armed into loaning money to minorities who clearly did not have the ability to repay them. In fact the very people who occassioned this financial disaster are now posing as being a major part of the solution, only in washington or disneyland could this happen.

[SAL]

So, let's be clear...

John Mccain is essentially asking Americans to fight Americans.

The GOP has become a domestic terror group.

Tne NEW Radical Extremist REpublican party is going to FIGHT other Americans.

Mccain has gone off the deepest deep end.

[Paul Stewart]

"My friends, we've got them right where we want them."

Right, just like Bin Laden, right where we want him..... Where is he again???

[sanityvoice2]

As the coherence of McCain's campaign falls apart due to too many quick side-steps and face changes, he is being reduced to his lowest common denominator - anger, name-calling, and tactics that are more sleazy even than his old nemisis George Bush used against him. And predictably, sane people haven't liked it.

So, he will now do a quick change into "McUnderdog"!

And, why has he become not an agent for change but a "quick change artist" who wears a new mask almost everyday? Well, my friends, that is because his real face looks so much like George Bush's that he knows he can't show it openly and honestly. So,instead we get a new mask every other day as he constantly tries to disown who and what he is and attempts to hide behind empty slogans and phony maneuvers.

[MutherBear]

Good Lord! Is this nothing more than a game to Senator McCain??? Is he really just playing dress-up, trying on different personas until he finds one that works for him?

ACT I - “I’m the one with all the experience - he just doesn’t have enough experience!”

ACT II - “Let me introduce you to my new running-mate! There are NASA Chimpanzees who are more qualified than her, but hey....she’s a Maverick!!! (She told me so in that ONE meeting we had!)”

ACT III - “I know how to fix this!...and that!....and that!....and that over there, too! Bin Ladin? OH, I”LL GET HIM - I KNOW HOW!! I’m just not sharing ANY of my “know-how” until you cough up the big office!”

ACT IV - “CHANGE IS COMING!” (I think it’s actually pretty healthy that you’re coming to grips with that now - it will make it easier on you when election day rolls around, and you wake up to realize that change did, indeed, come.)

ACT V - “Who IS this Barack Obama, with all his strangeness and differentness, and especially with all those strange and different, American-Hating, Terrorist, Socialist, Muslim, Chicago Politician friends that he’s had all those barbecues and pool parties with?? And, for that matter, if ANY of this crap was true - HOW IN THE HECK DID HE EVER PASS THE “American Senator” Test???? Senator McCain? You weren’t sitting in the Senate with this guy, were you?

ACT VI - “No, no Ma’am. You needn’t fear an Obama Presidency. He’s not an Aye-rab - he’s a decent family guy, who I’ve just been smearing the crap out of to make you afraid so I can win.....did I say that out loud??? I meant, “COUNTRY FIRST!!!”

ACT VII - “THERE’S NO NEED TO FEAR! UNDERDOG IS HERE.” (Feel free to hum that wonderful theme song if you remember it - Damn, I’m Old!)

(Borrowed from “The American President” because it fits): John McCain has been in the Senate for 26 years. I've been operating under the assumption that the reason John devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain (or trying to FIND the rain, even) is that he simply doesn't get it. Well, I am wrong. John's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. John's problem is that he can't sell it!

Keep trying, Senator. No Sale. And, by the way, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” (to paraphrase) seems infinitely more a lesson you yourself are in need of.

[Annie]

No matter how many times he "reinvents" his campaign, John McCain will not be able to catch up. There is no way he can reverse the Obama momentum. Too much of a gap, too late in the election, too many toss-up, leaning Republican states looking blue.

[mark]

John McCain is the underdog because he has not had enough good press. This is a good article and I think a large move of middle class voters will turn out and vote for Republican experince. Barack Heussein Obama just does not have the experience that it takes to lead this nation. When McCain is confronted with being attached to Bush, I think the folks should be reminded that a Democratic House and Senate has ruled for 4 years. WOW!!!

[Emlyn]

Tough ain't enough.

We need a leader, not a hero.

[Lance Newell]

Well,if the united states elects John McCain,the nation gets what it deserves.
if we want more war,tax cuts for the wealthy,less work in the nation,more unemployment,less educational possibilities,and a never ending war in Iraq and probably a war with Iran,heck elect John McCain.
On the other hand...well you know,more green technology,less war,more educational opportunities,less tax cuts for the wealthy,better health care for all,I mean,it is kinda a stark difference.

[steve rodriguez]

Hey John it's tough to be ahead in the polls when your opponents side always plays the Race Card and has the down-stream media on his side!

[steve rodriguez]

Louis Farrakhan, Oprah Winfrey, John Lewis, Jeremiah Wright all these people are so staunch in the Obama camp that they can't think rationally! Obama camp has only one color black! I am Latino, I want a candidate who will look beyong race and color!

McCain - Palin 2008

[John Quimby]

I have the answer to all of the posts that start of with:

Why won't the media cover the fact that...

It's because the issues in this race have been examined over and over again and there's no reason to report something that has no basis in fact.

The outright slander and libel broadcast in paid commercials for McCain (which you and I are paying for my fellow prisoners) doesn't bear examination by actual journalists.

That's why.

[Aimee]

I admire McCain's determination but it's probably too late - it's a shame too because he would have been a fantastic President. Unfortunately, he sold himself to the extreme right and resorted to ridiculous smear campaigns...precisely the kind of politics he always disdained and precisely what will lose him the election after 8 years of Bush fuelling skepticism among the voters about Republican policies. McCain was probably the only man in his party that could have had a chance at winning this because he bears that 'maverick' image and used to stand apart from his party on many issues, but his advisers have grossly mismanaged his campaign.

At this point, the best he can do is try to cut down on the character based smears and address real issues, talk to the people honestly like he used to. Unfortunately, this will probably just play into Obama's accusations of 'erratic behaviour' - and maybe that assessment wouldn't be entirely untrue. This whole election has been a disappointment but maybe that's more of a reflection on the flaws of the Republican party than that of McCain. If Obama becomes Pres in a month, the whacky GOP neo-cons will have nobody to blame but themselves.

[Ken Merowitz]

In 2006, Obama campaigned for a relative in Kenya, who was running for the Presidency. Obama's cousins name is Raila Odinga. Subsequently, Odinga lost by 230,000 or so votes. He did not accept the loss. So he called for demonstrations by his political supporters who in turn committed ethnic cleansing and genocide. Point blank, this guy tried to subvert the election process and use blackmail until he got what he wanted. Here is a video that gives a good accounting of the events along with photo's as proof of Obama and Odinga campaigning together. And Obama, used U.S. taxpayer money for this and his Senatorial position to help this terrorist. Titled: Barack Obama & Raila Odinga - Link: - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=S8QcpdUtxNQ&feature=related