Experts Expound

“John McCain is down in the polls. What is his likely strategy in the final three weeks of the campaign? Hard slugger? Thoughtful and presidential? Negative?”

All of the above.

You can rest assured he will be all over the map, just like he has been during the whole campaign. This has been a campaign of shifting tactics, not strategic continuity. It doesn’t matter what he does from this point forward, anyway — he’s toast.

One word: Fear.

His strategy is to try and scare white America into thinking that Obama is really Osama and on Nov. 5, he will pull off his mask. So far it has fallen flat because Americans are watching their retirement and college savings go down. Maybe the McCain brain trust needs a Plan C.

McCain blew his chance to appear thoughtful and presidential when he picked Sarah Palin and his campaign focused on Bill Ayers instead of an imploding economy. In addition, he’s appeared erratic, vague and befuddled in the face of the world financial crisis. He can’t repair that damage in three weeks. All he can do is tear down Obama and hope the electorate is more frightfully racist than anyone imagines.

Whatever course he takes, it will not lead to the White House. He can’t win at this point, only Obama can lose.

Negative wins.

Confused. Contradictory. Erratic.

I’m not sure the “maverick” stuff for the Republican ticket is selling that well. My hunch is that he should look mature, presidential like someone who can “bring us together” as Nixon did…..

Anything and everything. With 19 days to go, he’s got time for at least 19 different strategies.

A combo. Hard slugger and negative.

McCain has to convince voters that Obama is too great a risk in too risky a time

It is embarrassing to be a Republican when a campaign is run as badly as is the McCain campaign …but one can hope for an October surprise. So as I adjust to a life with President Obama, (ugh), I remember there is always the good, the bad, the ugly. The Good, is fewer whacko fundamentalist Christians trying to do what the Fundamentalist Islamics are doing – pushing their beliefs on the rest of us; The bad is paying more taxes and watching as bazillions of activist federal judges are appointed; and The Ugly is too many liberals trying to push their way of life, nay beliefs, on the rest of us. It’s getting so a moderate has no place to hide.

The people from whom we sought opinions: Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Elizabeth Ashford, Mark Bogetich, Barry Brokaw, Morgan Crinklaw, J. Dale Debber, Peter DeMarco, Jim Evans, Kathy Fairbanks, Jeff Fuller, Rex Frazier, Ken Gibson, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Sandy Harrison, Bob Hertzberg, Jason Kinney, Mike Madrid, Nicole Mahrt, Steve Maviglio, Adam Mendelsohn, Barbara O’Connor, Bill Packer, Kassy Perry, Jack Pitney, Adam Probolsky, Tony Quinn, Matt Rexroad, Matt Ross, Roger Salazar, Gabriel Sanchez, Dan Schnur, Will Shuck, Ralph Simoni, Sam Sorich, Ray Sotero, Garry South, Kevin Spillane, Rich Zeiger