“No Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or Bush advisors.”

It also has the added benefit of being true.

There isn’t really compelling evidence that the voters trust Obama more on foreign policy or economics than McCain. To the contrary, there is some evidence the opposite is true.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Forty-four percent (44%) trust McCain most when it comes to economic issues and managing the economy while 40% prefer Obama. On national security issues such as the War in Iraq and the War on Terrorism, 51% have more trust in McCain while 37% prefer Obama.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080604/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_exit_polls

Compounding their challenges: McCain conceded months ago that the economy was not his strong point, while Obama has run weakest with Democratic voters who say they’ve been hurt by the troubled economy, a growing group.

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=1315

However, more voters continue to say that McCain is about right in his approach to foreign policy and national security issues than say that about Obama (51% vs. 43%). The view that Obama is not tough enough on foreign policy has not receded since earlier in the year. More than four-in-ten (43%) say that Obama is not tough enough on foreign policy, which is identical to February.

Now, I will admit that Pew’s numbers still suggest Obama is better suited to the economy, but I believe (and I grant you this is mostly conjecture than anything else) that if McCain can explain the Obama plan in terms that the general populace can understand, as opposed to Obama’s version of “it will help the working class trust me,” those numbers will go down. Hillary didn’t do a great job attacking Obama’s platform because it resembled hers in a lot of ways. McCain won’t have any such hang up.

Here is the thing. Having read all of Obama’s policies I admit that personally I find most of them appallingly bad. But if McCain can clearly and concisely summarize the Obama plan and its effects on individuals, those numbers on the economy should shift.

Later in the speech, which was frequently punctuated by the crowd’s rapturous applause, he said: “I will always leave the threat of military action on the table to defend our security, and that of our ally Israel.”

See the best thing about Barack, is that even if he wins the Obamaniacs aren’t getting what they think they’re getting. The heartbreak isn’t going to come during at Denver or during the general. The heartbreak will come in 2010 when Barack is leading us into Iran. Or Pakistan.

You say Obama will get “dinged” on policy, and I understand that YOU disagree with a lot of Obama’s policy proposals, but do you really think that’s true in terms of where most of the American people are at? I mean, you take a shot at Obama for his talk of diplomacy, and you suggest that Obama doesn’t know what he’s talking about when it comes to the economy, but in terms of where the American people are at, isn’t there pretty strong evidence that they WANT a president who will talk to our enemies and that they tend to trust Democrats on the economy more than Republicans?

McCain needs to run his own race, and if he starts seeking to show he has the rhetoric “club” in his “bag,” he is going to go off message and hurt his chances.

McCain is an off the cuff speaker, with all the risks that go with it. His speech was off the prompter, and that will hurt him. McCain is at his best in town hall meetings and talk shows responding to questions. Trying to revamp McCain as a non-curmudgeonly guy isn’t going to work. Yeah, maybe some of McCain’s speeches have sounded canned, but you know what, some of Obama’s have not sounded so great either to those of us who have not drank the Kool Aid.

Mark my words, Obama is going to be forced to stray from his soaring rhetoric into the nitty gritty of his policies. And there he will get dinged. A lot. Foreign policy (adopting Kennedy’s disastrous “we don’t fear talking to anyone, unless its Krushchev in Vienna, and then we get slapped around like we stole something”), economic policy (yeah we negotiated these trade treaties, and yeah if we try to “renegotiate” we are going to get hosed, but screw it, our dollar is declining and I am nowhere near good enough to explain how the economy works, so thank god I have the audacity to hope).

This is not a slam dunk for any party. But McCain doesn’t win by trying to play a conservative Obama. If he plays it right, McCain may take that “enthusiam” by Obama and make it look like naivete.

And for the love of God, if I have learned anything from the West Wing, its that McCain needs to get his ten word answers down, specifically one for “why this won’t be Bush III,” “War on Terror,” and “Economy.” If I were working for McCain, I would be in a basement somewhere generating these things now.

McCain has gone out of his way to chastise the negative comments. So far out of his way that the conservatives who are upset with his presence are further upset by what they perceive as an extremely soft approach to the campaign. So when McCain does go negative . . . won’t it resound?