A Whole New McCain

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Republicans acknowledge that the new tack does carry a risk of tarnishing the brand. McCain's former political mastermind John Weaver, for example, who helped create the straight-talk candidate eight years ago, called the new strategy "childish" and worried that it "diminishes John McCain." McCain's advisers have tried to alleviate that concern by keeping the attacks light and funny while coaching their candidate to have fun on the trail. Several days after the Paris Hilton spot, the campaign released another online video that mockingly compared Obama to Charlton Heston's Hollywood depiction of a Biblical Moses. "They will call him 'The One,'" intones the ad's narrator. "Can you see the light?" (Though perhaps funny to secular voters, the ad was steeped in imagery that catered to conservative Evangelicals, a key voting bloc.)

In some ways, McCain is simply following the blueprint that helped George W. Bush defeat John Kerry in 2004, when Bush painted the Yankee Senator as a windsurfing élitist. It is also a strategy that Hillary Clinton employed in the primaries against Obama by arguing that the Illinois Senator wasn't ready to fight the hard fight for working Americans. Clinton beat Obama in most of the last 13 primary contests, including wins in several industrial swing states that could decide the November election. The McCain campaign hopes Obama, who holds a stable but slim lead in national polls, does not realize the danger he is in. "It's the oldest cautionary tale in literature," says a McCain adviser with a smile. "Hubris."

Democrats are beginning to echo that idea in private. While McCain calls for an "economic surge," Obama still struggles when trying to establish a strong emotional connection with voters facing tough economic times. That's a worry, they say, as voters' attention has shifted away from the war in Iraq to gas prices and job losses. And Obama at times has seemed to play into McCain's new script. Reporters have not forgotten that someone inside his campaign authorized--or wasn't smart enough to stop--Obama's appearance at a podium with an altered version of the presidential seal inscribed with Obama's campaign motto. And for all Obama's talk about his small-donor base, his campaign recently announced a $10,000-a-head fund raiser in September to be hosted by George Clooney in the Swiss Alps. "He needs a much more empathetic economic message," says a veteran Democratic operative. "This is one place where his coolness really isn't working for him. He gives off an aura of distance that really does get in his way."

It's too early to know if McCain's new heat can cut Obama down to size. But if history is any guide, his timing may prove auspicious. It was in August in 1988 and 2004 that the gop and its allies' stealth attacks on Michael Dukakis (regarding his record on crime) and John Kerry (about his patriotism) really gathered steam. Both assaults were witheringly effective in part because neither Democrat took the threat seriously. Both Dukakis and Kerry declined to respond in kind--and neither ever recovered.