No, the title of this posting is not a joke. There are serious reasons to think that there is something more going on than incompetence in the McCain campaign.

The most recent oddity is the McCain campaign's bizarre claims that a center-right Democrat like Obama is a socialist. When I first heard this stuff, a question popped into my mind. Is McCain running against Obama or does he think he is running against Eugene V. Debs? You might say that McCain knows he will lose, so he will feed as much red meat to the GOP base to build turnout and try to protect as many GOP House and Senate seats as possible. In any case, this will just sound weird to most undecided voters.



If this were the only bit of strangeness, I would have left it at that. But, where he has chosen to campaign has been really bonkers. Why have I seen McCain and Palin spending so much time in New Hampshire, which only has four electoral votes and was pretty much a lock for Obama anyway? On the cable news, I've seen more appearances of theirs in NH than in any one of the following states: CO, VA, MN, or MO.

That is weird.


The center of McCain's political universe.

The McCain campaign's fascination with Iowa is pretty out there too. McCain shunned Iowa during the caucuses. That alone would give McCain a huge disadvantage against any Democrat, considering how much Iowans zealously assert and protect their privileged status in the presidential nomination process. Add the fact that Obama built and maintained a huge grassroots network in the state, and you have solid Obama territory.

The focus on Pennsylvania as McCain's last hope is just plain goofy. Republicans went on and on about winning there in 2000 and 2004, but they lost there both times. Given how bad the economy is, a Bush lover like McCain should have punted there and focused elsewhere. Yet, this is where McCain is going apeshit? Even if he somehow managed to pull off an amazing upset in Pennsylvania, the time and money spent will cost him other states whose combined electoral votes will be considerably more than the 21 that Pennsylvania might remotely offer McCain.

McCain's demeanor during his campaign appearances is not that of someone who is determined to be president. His speeches seem phoned in. When Republicans are nice to him, he seems to be happy and relieved, but his speeches are lifeless. McCain's debate performance was incredibly far from presidential in a year where people are incredibly worried about themselves, their families, their friends, and their country.

When the strongest quote the corporate media could find to promote McCain was, "I am not President Bush," you know that McCain and his speechwriters are slacking big time.

Then, there is the whole Palin thing. Why would McCain pick a governor who was under investigation by a legislature run by the GOP? Republicans almost never seriously investigate other Republicans. This should have set off major alarm bells. Also, it is difficult to imagine that any remotely competent political consultants wouldn't have vetted Ms. Palin enough to know that she has supported independence for Alaska. (Photo at right by triciaward)

It would be easy to understand why McCain would want to let somebody else be president at this point. McCain has staked his political reputation on continuing the Iraq War indefinitely. Yet, it will be nearly impossible to get our economy going well at all, much less for the majority of Americans who have faced bad times since 2000, unless we stop wasting borrowed money on that same war.

Republican policies on deregulation and global warming also pose huge economic threats to this country. (McCain differs with Bush significantly on global warming rhetoric, but only marginally on global warming policy.) McCain should know that encouraging drilling on our coasts won't make jack difference in oil prices and that one large oil spill in Florida or California could send shockwaves through our already devastated economy.

Also, let's be real. McCain is very old. The demands of the presidency take an enormous toll even during the best of times. These are far from the best of times. Maybe McCain has realized that being president, especially now, is beyond his capacity of endurance.

It really looks like McCain is punting the whole thing to Obama, hoping that Obama will be the Hoover our country may be stuck with rather than him. Obama will need to be much more like FDR if he hopes to be reelected in 2012.