End Game: Advantage Obama

The Weekly Standard Blog notes a piece from Evan Tracey of Advertising Age that argues that the end game of the 2008 election is now in sight -- and it favors Obama.

The reality of this race is that Mr. Obama is in control. His nationwide buys have been climbing a systematic 20% a week since the beginning of September, while Mr. McCain's have flatlined. The Arizona senator's strategy was to devote the lion's share of his early ad resources to the established battleground states and some to Obama-leaning states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. His hope was to translate those buys into early leads that would have given his campaign a fighting chance against the looming Obama ad onslaught.

As GOP strategist Mike Murphy writes in Time this week, McCain is spending too much time hitting on Obama's negatives and not enough time with his own strategic message:

McCain is in trouble in Michigan for the same reason he is in trouble in GOP leaning Florida and North Carolina; when it come to strategy Team Obama is throwing the McCain High Command around the room like stunt men in a Bruce Lee picture. The terrain of the election has shifted mightily to economic fear and Obama is moving his campaign to exploit that. Meanwhile the McCain campaign retains its lamentable focus on press tactics at the expense of a real strategy

The numbers favor Obama now -- there is no denying that McCain is in big trouble. The latest Rasmussen daily tracking poll now has Obama up 8 points -- 52-44 -- the largest lead to date.

I'm not sure how McCain can change the dynamic now; the public -- unbelievably -- thinks that Democrats are better on the economy than are Republicans. I suppose that's the longing for the Clinton bubble years. How anyone can think that Obama is better suited to run this economy is beyond me -- given that he and his cronies are in the tank for the special interests (ACORN, Fannie/Freddie, Trial lawyers) that lead to most of this mess.

But no matter. America seems to be convinced that Barack Obama is really an agent of change.

Well, come to think of it, he is an agent of change. If you prefer socialism, he's your man.