Another upshot: The Obama campaign will probably not be able to count on the McCain camp's incompetence and inability to gain organizational or message traction for much longer.

I don't know, it may be too soon to tell on that. McCain's gaffs continue to pile up and now that concrete examples of his mental instability (calling his wife a trollop and a cunt and grabbing at sandinistas) are coming to light McCain may end up being steamrolled by the truth that is John McCain.

Also, let's keep in mind why the press loves McCain: access. It is hard to maintain the message discipline when you are giving as much access as McCain has been. And if McCain cuts down on access the reporters he considers his "base" may fall out of love.

Another upshot: The Obama campaign will probably not be able to count on the McCain camp's incompetence and inability to gain organizational or message traction for much longer.

Well...what a great comment here. The real issue is McFuddle being unfit and his temperment for the job of President. Are you guys weak and whimping out to report on ongoing issue? Obama does count on McFuddle's campaign team to fail instead he counts on the debate of the issues and McFuddle's character to win the election. I am beginning to believe that TPM is afraid to report the truth of Mcfuddle's background and charater. anybody agree? After all, McFuddle may grab you and threaten you if he gets mad at you!

please consider a review or edit feature....I need it!

Don't you mean "downside" instead of "upshot"?

I don't know that hiring any boy wonder will make McCain appear competent. No one has managed that for Bush.

Am I the only one who thinks that McCain's lack of message traction actually helped him? The enigma factor has helped him to resist Obama's efforts to define contrasts on the issues. That, after all, was the point of the decentralized campaign: a different McCain for every region.

When people actually find out that he's proposing, I suspect it's actually going to hurt him. If there's only 'one McCain,' it has to be either the Goldwater Westerner or the Bushite Southerner. By necessity, it will have to be the second. The only way this benefits McCain is that it will help him coordinate smear mantras.

Greg,
I'd like to you follow up on McFuddle's atack on Obama for his middle east trip and possible stop in Iraq. I haven't heard anyone really following up on that. It would be nice if someone asked them why they are attacking Obama when he takes their advise.

Agreed. This is a great opportunity for Obama to say, "You know how I know that McCain is Bush's third term ... because's he's running like Bush's reelection campaign."

How many campaign managers has this been for McCain? Perhaps the theme should be, "Ready on Day One... then again on Day 100... then just a few more staff changes around Day 200... but really by the end of the first year, no, really!"

If a candidate can't lead a campaign, they'll only get worse once they hit the big seat and have 30+ cabinet secretaries and all those "3 AM" calls.

The incompetence of McCain's campaign is so atrocious that the new hire can do nothing but good. If there's one thing we know about the Bush 04 campaign, it is that they were good at messaging and making lables stick, like flip-flopper. To this day, after 8 years of disaster from Bush, people still would rather vote for him than Kerry, citing that they cannot trust him for flip-flopping.

Sad to say, Obama is a flip-flopper. He wants to tack to the middle and hold on to the Obamacans so badly that he's gone back on many issues you all know. Of course he would still have our votes, but vote we do much less enthusiastically.

Rove is also becoming more active in trying different labels on Obama. Today in WSJ, he is asking: Can Obama buy the presidency? Couple this with the flip-flop move on public finance, this would get some traction as well.

But Obama isn't doing anything to start defining McCain. Throw a few labels out and see what sticks. How about an old grumpy man with a rich, plastically-enhanced wife with million dollar mensions? Of course, this is a job for the surrogates.

I always thought that Lindsay Graham and Joementum were his campaign managers. They are always with him and whisper in his ear to correct his many misstatements.

When Hillary change campaign managers her campaign performed better and had she not ran out of states, she may well have been the Dem nominee.

This is a tight race and if JM's new campaign manager is as competent as folks say he is then we really could have a fight on our hands.

I think jaycal makes an important point here. McCain claims his military service qualifies him for being the chief executive of the United States Government. And General Clarke caught all kinds of blow back by point out the basic fact that McCain's military experience is rather lacking in filling the military roles that do require executive skills. Here we have his attempt to put together an organization, his campaign, and he fails miserably. And the judgment is from none other than the Republican establishment. They have in effect told McCain he does not know what he is doing and you had better let us put someone in there who knows what they are doing.