Monday, October 13, 2008

Should McCain Fire His Campaign?

Talk is that McCain will reboot today by firing his campaign, as William Kristol suggests.

His campaign has been a series of mistakes. But will this latest stunt work?

I think it's too little, too late. He should have fired the campaign a month ago, when the polls turned around. He definitely should have ignored the advice last week to go negative as the markets plunged in freefall.

The campaign deserves to be fired. But the strategy of doing that now is not without risks. If McCain gets his mojo back ("let McCain be McCain"), that could help him some. But firings look like a campaign and management team that's imploding, by a candidate who's not ready to lead. McCain may simply decide retool his strategy without a major display of fireworks. That would be the better approach.

It still won't win the election. But it might put a hold on the landslide. McCain should have learned by now: another major "stunt" is bound to eventually - if not sooner - backfire.

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