Posted on 09/14/2008 7:04:10 AM PDT by connell
In McCain Flies His Campaign Past Obama, Michael Barone suggests that McCain has gotten inside Obama's OODA loop:
John McCain was trained as a fighter pilot. In his selection of Sarah Palin, and in his convention and campaigning since, he has shown that he learned an important lesson from his fighter pilot days: He has gotten inside Barack Obama's OODA loop.
That term was the invention of the great fighter pilot and military strategist John Boyd. It's an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.
"The key to victory is operating at a faster tempo than the enemy," Boyd's biographer Robert Coram writes. "The key thing to understand about Boyd's version is not the mechanical cycle itself, but rather the need to execute the cycle in such a fashion as to get inside the mind and decision cycle of the adversary."
Now, McCain has an opportunity to stay there for even longer. The equation is simple:
Obama is starting to slide—almost precipitously—in the polls.
His campaign will now go even more negative in an effort to stop the slide.
This means now is the perfect time for McCain to change the battlespace once again: a complete shift to a solid focus on the issues.
The focus recently has been personal, or at least less issues-oriented. It's been about the attacks, the media, Palin's family, etc. Obama has not fared well during this period. If McCain and Palin leave all that behind and make a decisive switch to focusing on issues JUST at the moment when Obama is regrouping to fight on the personal level, it won't just make it look like Obama is petty, it'll make him look like he's fighting yesterday's battle.
If McCain-Palin do that, they won't just be inside Obama's OODA loop, they'll have a condo there.
I agree 100%. McCain needs to get out in front now, on the issue, while Palin is always at this or the other flank. He needs to get hammered hard on the issues, and then on his associations with Ayers.
This is exactly why McCain-Palin are doing Townhall meetings.
I think 0be is very vulnerable on the fact that he doesn’t send his kids to the public schools though he and Bill Errs tried to bring “change” to the CPS some years ago. It’s emblematic of the (useless) change 0be is going to bring to the whole country.
McCain should run as the agent of true change. Obama and Biden are beltway insider/hacks. Obama thinks he is for change, but Maverick McCain should do an end run around him on that issue.
I expect the Magnificent Bastards in the McCain campaign are way ahead of the “pundits” on this.
“”” This means now is the perfect time for McCain to change the battlespace once again: a complete shift to a solid focus on the issues. “””
Yes, and he needs to pivot on Health Care. Health Care is McCain’s glass jaw....
I agree that this would be a sound tactical move to keep the initiative.
McCain campaign has already started releasing issue-related ads. Two of them, however, make many Freepers unhappy: the immigrants and the Stem-cell issues.
Probably so. That isn’t always a safe assumption, but the McCain campaign has been run pretty well over the last few months. Here’s hoping!
When you are flying a jet in combat, you don’t have time to consult a focus group.
I would recommend John Boyd’s book to any problem-solver in any profession.
Thank you. The way this election is going, we might need to repeat it again and again starting Nov 5!
That's because only Republicans are racists.</sarc>
Shocking, isn't it? ;-) But with only a couple of months to go, it's reasonable to believe they'll be able to keep it up.
Also, McCain needs to take the economic issues away from Obama by showing those damned run down housing units he lobbied for in Chicago and saying “This is the change he brought to Chicago, now he wants to bring it to the whole country - and he wants you to pay for it. It’s change, but not the kind we to believe in”
What’s he saying about stem cells? Is he still backing embryonic? If so he’ll kill himself with the very pro-lifers he won via Palin. He’s a fool to die on that sword, since as he himself seems to be aware, embryonic stem cells are next to useless compared to adult stem cells.
Wish I had a commercial-making enterprise. I’d make that one!
> I would recommend John Boyd’s book to any problem-solver in any profession.
Please do. Do you have the title handy?
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