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Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright October13, 2008<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span class="style4">F</span>acing a steep slippery slope heading to Nov. 4, GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sara Palin, reversed course, suddenly dropping character assassination of Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Last week, McCain and Palin blasted Barack for his association with former Weather Underground<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> 60s radical Bill Ayers, repeatedly saying the 47-year-old first-term Illinois senator  pals around with terrorists. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>One week of negative attacks cost two full percentage points in the polls, now spotting Barack a 7.4% lead in aggregate polling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain s chief strategist Steve Schmidt and his campaign manager Rick Davis convinced themselves to go negative, after Obama opened up sizable leads in national polls and battleground states.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain and Palin s character assassination strategy backfired.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Two days before the last presidential debate at Hofstra University in Long Island, N.Y., McCain showed a new face, suspending all personal attacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He got nowhere questioning Barack s patriotism and tying him to former Vietnam War rabble rouser Bill Ayers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Sen. Hillary Rodham Clintion (D-N.Y.), now campaigning hard in Pennsylvania for Barack s election, tried but failed to associate Obama with Ayers, firebrand preacher<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.. and sleazy Chicago real estate mogul Tony Resko.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Much of McCain s strategy borrowed heavily from Hillary, whose campaign hammered Barack relentlessly until finally putting her away June 4 after the Montana and South Dakota primaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> McCain, like Hillary, learned there are limits to negative campaigning, eventually turning off voters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> McCain s new tactics indicate a desperate new strategy to gain traction.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>McCain has reinvented himself another time as the never-say-die underdog, whose campaign has gone through many reversals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The hour is late, our troubles are getting worse, our enemies watch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>We have to act immediately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>We have to change direction now, said McCain trying out a new stump speech, rallying supporters to his cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain has made many pitches, telling voters that Barack needs  on-the-job-training, something the country can ill-afford during this time of foreign threats and economic turmoil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When McCain makes the case that  our troubles are getting worse, he s making Barack s case that the country can t afford four more years of Bush s policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain s recent remarks come as close to ever from making a break with Bush s failed policies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain told Barack in last debate to stop tying him to Bush s failed presidency.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been conspicuously absent from the campaign trail, underscoring PR damage to McCain of an incumbent with a 26% approval ratings, the lowest in modern history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain faces stiff headwinds hoping to stave off a national trend showing discontent with the incumbent s party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> What America needs in this hour is a fighter, said McCain, confirming that Americans worried about the direction of the country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain would like to champion the American cause but his party has left the country s economy in shambles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Most voters have difficulty trusting McCain will somehow turn things around, when his tax-and-spending plan closely resembles Bush s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama s rise in the polls seems closely correlated with deteriorating economic conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain blasted Obama for tax-and-spend polices resembling former President Herbert Hoover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>McCain s final push before Wednesday night s debate has raised doubts about his record of fiscal conservatism, especially when it comes to the military.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He s already warned at the Oct. 7 Nashville debate he intends to slash all government programs except defense. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>Trying to paint Obama as the next Herbert Hoover is as Orwellian as saying he  pals around with domestic terrorists. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama is committed to middle class tax relief, affecting about 95% of American families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain wants more tax cuts for the country s top wage earners, currently paying less tax than under the late President Ronald Reagan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain claims Barack wants to raise taxes, despite his pledge of cutting taxes for wage earners under $250,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Now off the terrorist kick, McCain frightens voters into believing he exact opposite of Barack s tax policy:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack intends to cut taxes for middle class voters.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Voters have grown weary of candidates reinventing themselves every time they re down in the polls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain s new effort to cast himself as a reformer, despite supporting Bush 94% of the time during the last eight years, looks disingenuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He has a new plan for the economy but can t distinguish himself from Bush, especially on tax policy where Supply Side and Trickle-Down economics still rule the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>McCain s tax policy tells the whole story of his priorities, already threatening to slash every entitlement program except the sacrosanct defense budget.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>He has no plan to end the Iraq War or to get Iraqis to foot the bill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like a manager or coach who blames bad times on his team, voters seek a management change in 2008.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No political party should be rewarded for running the country into the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>No matter how much McCain fights, he s fighting a losing battle.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;<bAbout the Author</u><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyxing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <i><a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> </i>and <i><a href="books.html"> Operation Charisma</a></i>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>