McCain Still Sinking

The effect of John McCain's new fear strategy will not be felt for a few days yet, but the reason for the sudden transformation continues to resound. Simply put, McCain's numbers show no signs of improving. Last week, McCain's campaign laid out its strategy for electoral victory. It consisted of focusing on three states: Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. As I reported at the time, McCain trailed in all three. By 5% in Minnesota, 7.9% in Pennsylvania, and 5% in Wisconsin. Well, checking back in a few days later, things have gotten even worse. McCain is now behind 7.6% in Minnesota, 9.4% in Pennsylvania, and by 5% in Wisconsin.

Further complicating this math problem for McCain, aggregate polls show that he now trails in states his strategy considered in the bag, Missouri (-.3%) and North Carolina (-1.5%), where he was slightly ahead just last week. Obama has also built upon his leads in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, New Mexico, and Colorado.

It is before this backdrop that we see the calculated decision for McCain and Sarah Palin to whip up partisan crowds into shouts of "terrorist!" and "kill him!" in place of substantive policy proposals. It's sad to watch McCain choose this path. He's truly playing to the lowest common denominator now.