What if McCain knows what he's doing?

American Thinker ^ | October 07, 2008 | Charlie Martin

[vietvet67]

Sometimes, if I'm puzzled by someone's actions, I like to ask myself "if he's really smarter than I am, why would he be doing what he's doing?"

You can learn a lot that way.  Unfortunately, the American Chattering Classes often operate on the opposite assumption: "if I don't see the point of this, that other guy must be an idiot."

As a case study, let's consider the McCain campaign in the month since my piece on McCain's apparent use of the OODA loop was published here in American Thinker.  God knows it's been a rough month: after the rush of the Palin selection, we had a couple of disappointing experiences with major media interviews, and worse -- much worse -- we had the credit market freeze and the fight to get a rescue package working.

Of course, then we had the Vice Presidential debate, which certainly restored a certain amount of respect for Sarah Palin.  (It must have: there has been another flood of Palin rumors.)  But then we had some more inexplicable actions on the part of McCain's campaign: the announcement that they intended to get tough on Obama... real soon.  The announcement that they were pulling out of Michigan ... or were they?  The Michigan GOP didn't like it, and Sarah Palin said to send her and her husband.   It became clear McCain didn't exactly have complete control of the moose-hunting governor.

Following shortly after that announcement, the New York Times published a piece on Obama's association with William Ayers, describing Obama's association with the "60's bomber". The article argued, not very successfully, that there wasn't much of a connection.  (It was timed perfectly to appear shortly after the first hints of McCain using the topic.)

Then the Obama campaign started to talk about the Keating Five, a topic that Obama had previously suggested wasn't very interesting.

The Palin rumor mill pumped up a visiting Kenyan preacher who apparently was a "witch hunter" in his village in Africa.  This preacher, in a single visit to Palin's church three years ago, prayed for God's blessing and protection on Palin.

What followed?  Now Ayers was a topic in the mainstream press; when Sarah Palin attacked Obama on the association, she did so referring to the New York Times story.  When the issue of Obama's connections to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came up, it came up only after the Obama campaign had already brought up the Keating Five -- and, of course, it happened that just about then, another of the Keating Five was introducing Bruce Springsteen at an Obama fundraiser. 

Now that the topic of Palin's religious connections has come up, well,  the Rev. Wright story had shown us Obama wasn't lacking in peculiar religious connections -- and, while McCain had refused to use it during the late primary, Palin brought it up. She had already established that she wasn't always going to do exactly what McCain wanted when she argued against the Michigan pullout.

Suddenly, Monday, McCain is pulling no punches: in a talk in Albuquerque, he brought up the Ayers association, just as Sarah had; he brought up the issue of Obama's association with so many figures who seem to have been at the heart of the credit crisis; he asked the questions people had been pushing for weeks in the GOP blogosphere.  Questions like "What has Obama accomplished?  What were his relationships to Ayers and other radicals?  Why is he so secretive about his past?"

In every case, we see that the McCain campaign had telegraphed the topic, then waited for the Obama campaign (or the mainstream media).  They reliably would then bring out the defenses, making them topics that McCain could then explore.

In the last four weeks of the campaign, McCain is bringing up topics that are weaknesses for Obama, having stood up to the repeated attacks.  We go into the "town hall meeting" debate tonight, a forum that shows McCain to best advantage, with a new and combative McCain, armed with topics that are now on everyone's minds, having conserved his resources effectively, and after months of record-breaking Republican National Committee fundraising.  What's more, he's doing so at a time when Obama's resources are strained, and his fundraising is under scrutiny.

It's never good to make predictions about anything in this race, but I think there's one prediction that we can make without fear: the campaign isn't done yet, and we can expect surprises.

For those of us on McCain's side, I suspect they will be good surprises.

[AU72]

McCain was working a strategy until the subprime crisis came. Anything he had planned would have been drowned out and he was essentially vamping until late last week.

Now his campaign is continuing the deconstruction of Obama that started with the Paris Hilton ad.

[roaddog727]

“You don’t get to be a dummy and fly fighter jets. Nor get elected Governor. GW Bush did both: McCain did both in Anger.”

Nor make Navy Captain......

[TheShaz]

I would like to think that this is correct.

I assume we will know during and after the debate tonite. The poll #’s have been effective in scaring some people into thinking the race is over.

I would really like to think that McCain is Crazy like a Fox..becase previously it has been proven to be the case..

We will see tonite what the deal is.

[Tax-chick]

Being up on the law is a good idea, if you’re going to be a crime-fighter.

[Manic_Episode]

"George W. was elected President twice. He’s not running for office now."

***************************************

His base is fickle that way.

History will be more kind than FR.

[Tax-chick]

I misunderstood the point of your earlier post. I thought you were suggesting that it was erroneous to view President Bush as an effective candidate. People keep doing that, as if he didn’t win elections.

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

What does OODA mean?

Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA). COL John Boyd, USAF invented the OODA loop to describe the process by which a fighter pilot engages an enemy and to explain why a pilot with superior training in an inferior aircraft could reliably defeat a pilot with inferior training in a superior aircraft. The pilot with the tightest or shortest OODA loop wins because his superior decisions and faster actions place him and his aircraft at an increasing advantage over his opponent.

Since then, the OODA loop has proven itself in many facets of military operations and management.

More than a few veterans on Free Republic and elsewhere have observed that John McCain demonstrates a very tight OODA loop against Barrack Obama, who sometimes fails to close his OODA loop ("Call me if you need me.")

[fightinJAG]

Agreed. But McCain is also a risk-taker with his own career and sometimes that pays off and sometimes it doesn’t.

But this is a situation where you have to pull out all the stops on third and long.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

McCain is going to do great tonight; he’ll be totally in his element and Obama will be floundering around, Um...Ah...Hmmm...he’s PAINFUL to watch and listen to without a script.

Watch for McCain to land a few good punches tonight. He knows what’s on the line.

[downwdims]

You have to get up in his grill yet circle away and land the kill shot

Re: Kimbo's demise

[tanknetter]

What if McCain knows what he's doing?

Four weeks to go, and lots of rumors that McCain has something big he's going to spring two weeks out.

I think there's a good possibility that McCain is going after Ayers etc now to force Obama to run with whatever he has tucked away on McCain. Like the Keating video that was probably put together months ago. Come the last two weeks of the campaign, if McCain lets lets loose something big, Obama's political revolver may be empty.

[Manic_Episode]

My apologies.

I should have been more clear.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> I’m not sure if it shows that I am surrounded by those who are equally smart or equally stupid, but either way, it’s nice to be surrounded by one’s peers. :)

I like it, too, for all the reasons that you describe. The FRee Republic enforces tight thinking and tighter writing precisely because your peers will catch and hi-lite and critique your mistakes publicly.

I got caught there fair and square.

I’ve only been on FR for a few years, but I have noticed that the quality of my thinking and reasoning and debating skills has markedly improved with the practise my peers at FR give me.

It’s a real mental work-out.

[mlocher]

McCain has been preparing his run for President for 8 years. He knows what he is doing and got the matchup he wanted.

I agree. He also knows who to surround himself with. He has been around the block in politics several times and does not seem to have made many, if any, enemies. Obama, on the other hand, has a few good people in his campaign, but he still is naive about national politics. What worked to get him to state senate and then to the US senate does not play to make it to the presidency. Liberation theology has its limits.

[Tax-chick]

No problem. I should have had more coffee :-).

[rintense]

Obama was dumb enough to take the bait. Now all his associations are fair game.

[mlocher]

If he wanted to slam the door shut on this election he should have voted “NO” on the bailout package.

I am not happy with his bailout vote at all. I believe, however, that McCain did what he felt was right for the country. I know that he knew the political risks, but put those aside. While he is not my prefered candidate, he is a man of character, and I greatly respect that.

[bray]

I don’t know about OODA but I do know that McCain is inside Achmed’s Noodle.

Pray for W, McCain and Our Troops

[MrChips]

Well, the Ayres thing did knock the economy out of the news a bit. And it raised the character issue. It is not a strategy. But it is a part of one.

[randita]

Everyone has someone in your family who absolutely HATES losing, even if it’s a game of Parcheesi. That person may be the friendliest guy/gal on the block when a game is not on the line, but during a game, they become possessed.

McCain reminds me of someone like that. He hates losing. You got a glimpse of that after he knew Bush had won the 2000 SC Primary. He blew by Maria Schriver like a bull in a china closet. He was angrier than heck. That event reinforced the template that he was a hothead.

So far this campaign, he has acting very coolly - I think to blunt the hothead accusation. But I’ve been waiting to see that kind of hot head intensity in this campaign, but controlled and aimed at Obama. I hope he’s starting to show it finally.