John McCain may have missed his opportunity to take the mantle of good steward of the economy from Barack Obama.
He took an important first step last week when he went back to Washington D.C. and made sure House Republicans were engaged in the bailout negotiations. It almost paid off - the Republicans were able to get some important provisions into the bill (like changing the mark to market rules and creating a provision to insure the loans instead of buying the mortgage-backed securities) while removing typical liberal ridiculousness, like creating a slush fund for ACORN.
McCain then missed an opportunity at the debates to spell out his support for the provisions the Republicans were getting into the bill. Instead, he offered tepid support for doing something, without really specifying what he would like to see in the bill. Obama did mostly the same thing - and McCain also whiffed - he could have stated that Obama had basically supported Bush's proposal while he (McCain) preferred more protection for taxpayers. But he did nothing like that.
He then lost whatever political edge he might have gained from his work last week when the House decided not to pass the bill.
But he had a chance to change the message again. He could have come out and explicitly stated that he supported the House's decision to turn down a bad bill. He then could have come out and explicitly supported the Republicans' proposals and stated that was the specific reason he got involved in the process in the first place.
But he has instead flubbed the issue again - coming out stronger in favor of the failed bill. He is now telling supporters that the bill may be unpopular, but is necessary to heal the economy. Obama is giving essentially the same argument to his people.
McCain could have distanced himself from Obama, Bush and the unpopular legislation. Instead, he tied himself to all of the above.
Obama continues to surge in the polls. McCain has to do something to stem the tide. He has had three good chances and completely missed them all. His only hope now is that the government does something, the problem goes away, and he can get the economy off the front page somehow. It seems unlikely.
McCain had a big chance and missed it. And he might have just given away the White House along with it.
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While an Obama Administration looms ever more likely, it also becomes increasingly frightening. But then, McCain hasn't done much to inspire confidence. If he was counting on Palin to rocket him to the top, he should have rethought that strategy. She was a good choice, but that didn't give him an automatic pass to sit and ride out the rest of the campaign.
I don't think he was counting on her to rocket him to the top. I just think his campaign has made some missteps in the past two weeks - much like it did between March and August. The problem is that now more people are paying attention. He looks erratic. In addition, his people have made the mistake of overpreparing Palin for her interviews and instead of giving honest, hearfelt answers to questions, she is struggling to spit out talking points and canned answers. And liberals jump all over it.
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