Massachusetts Democrant

McCain-Obama 2... same as it ever was

No big surprises last night, as both candidates continued to riff on the familiar themes, with occasional minor notes of interests that at least gave the pundits something to talk about. Post debate poll results were consistent with the prior debate. Both CNN's poll of all voters and the CBS poll of undedecided went to Obama, yet again. Both debates were supposed to be on McCain's home field, first on foreign policy, then last night's town hall format. Both times, he has been seen as losing the debate. What's left for him?

That said, it still is the economy that is driving the Obama momentum. Remember in '04, Kerry outperformed Bush in the debates, but got no traction out of that.

Even the McCain campaign has admitted that it cannot win the election if the news focus remains on the economic crisis. That pretty much waves the white flag that they cannot win the war of ideas with Obama on the economy. So when you can't win the war of ideas, I suppose taking your opponents ideas as your own is another option, as McCain did on the idea of buying up people's mortgages. From the Associated Press:

"In fact, at a news conference on Sept. 24, Obama said, "we should consider giving the government the authority to purchase mortgages directly instead of simply purchasing mortgage-backed securities."

Days later, in a news release, he said he would "encourage Treasury to study the option of buying individual mortgages like we did successfully in the 1930s.""

The best part was McCain prefacing this in calling the idea his own, not President Bush's and not Senator Obama's. That is, until you actually check the record. In addition, the bailout plan already gives the Treasury Secretary authority to do just that.

CNN's analysts made a note of McCain's disdain, noting his reference to Obama as "that one" when talking about who voted for the Energy Bill of 2005. Mind you, McCain's claim that it was full of goodies to the oil industry was, incorrect:

Congressional Research Service: The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT05, P.L. 109-58) included several oil and gas tax incentives, providing about $2.6 billion of tax cuts for the oil and gas industry. In addition, EPACT05 provided for $2.9 billion of tax increases on the oil and gas industry, for a net tax increase on the industry of nearly $300 million over 11 years.

There is a month to go in this campaign, which is a long time in politics. The McCain campaign is a mess; viewed as ship with no captain, veering every which way, trying to make to through the storm. They've gone negative, tried to ridiculously co-opt the theme of "change", made a huge blunder with a vp selection that has become a liability and been unable to, as Bush 1 would say, get a grasp of that vision thing.