Short of a terrorist attack, tonight's town hall-style debate may be John McCain's last chance to re-boot the presidential race.
It's supposed to be his best format, and it may well allow an audience member, rather than the candidate, to question Barack Obama about Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground or Rev. Wright of "goddam America!"
Obama, no doubt, has ready answers, but those are issues that provide ripe fruit for the 7 percent or so of undecided voters that McCain is praying will break right on election day. Those undecideds probably include many who are unsettled at turning the economy over to the GOP, not to mention health care, but still get queasy with the young black guy. (Wonder if Obama is wishing he'd spent a few years in ROTC. With that on his resume, this election would indeed be over now.)
If asked about Ayers, Obama is apparently going to say with a straight face that he didn't know who Ayers was when they met in 1995. Isn't Ayer's notoriety just the sort of thing neighborhoods gossip about, particularly to newcomers?
Nevertheless, the unscripted format poses dangers for McCain. It could allow his disdain for Obama to drip through, barely disguised as it was at the first debate. And it could elicit answers that provide the sort of video-tape item that can stamp "finished" on the campaign script. Consider this anecdote from the Wall Street Journal:
"At a summer event in Denver, a woman in a wheelchair asked Sen. McCain whether he would consider supporting the Community Choice Act that would give disabled people greater freedom on where to live.
'I will not,' Sen. McCain responded. 'Because I don't think it's the right kind of legislation.' A trio of people in wheelchairs left the room after his response.
In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has sharply curbed the number of such events."
McCain may have been right, but imagine TV's video jackpot.
Then there is this curious story from the Politico web site. Did you know McCain is taking weekends off? The story never mentions age, but it doesn't have to. Here's a guy fighting for the political brass ring, and he's not working 7/7?
If that remains the case, I'll predict we'll see more similar stories
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