The McCain Shipwreck

Senator John McCain's Presidential Campaign is coming to an ignominious end.

Even some Republican-leaning pollsters are predicting an Obama landslide.

This past Sunday's New York Times Magazine offered a not-as-premature-as-you-might-think post-mortem of the McCain Campaign.

In the end, Senator Obama's community organizing background may have given him the edge in creating what, by all accounts, is an unprecedented ground organization.

Would the McCain organization have fared better against Senator Hillary Clinton? Perhaps. But in many ways, the campaign imploded. The following is a summary of the NYT's piece from Chris Cillizza's "The Fix":

• In attempting to adapt to the constantly-changing (and worsening) political environment, McCain has tried on a series of themes -- "a fighter, a conciliator, an experienced leader and a shake 'em up rebel," writes Draper -- which has contributed to the average voter losing his/her sense of who McCain really is. "In constantly alternating among story lines in order to respond to changing events and to gain traction with voters, the 'true character' of a once-crisply-defined political figure has become increasingly murky," writes Draper. This is dead on. The key for any campaign is to be able to sum up what their candidate means/embodies in one word. For Barack Obama that word is "change." Try doing the same for McCain. Tough to think of just one word.


• Draper lays the idea of McCain suspending his campaign during the early stages of the financial crisis at the feet of Steve Schmidt, the man placed in charge of the day to day operations of the campaign in early July. Schmidt, writes Draper, saw the financial crisis as a "'true character' moment that would advance his candidate's narrative" but adds that the gambit failed because "scene by scene, McCain failed to deliver the performance that had been promised." Draper does credit Schmidt for the idea of casting Obama as a celebrity -- an idea and a message that arguably represented McCain's high point in the race to date.


• Although the staff insurrection last summer in McCain's campaign is old news now, Draper rightly puts the blame for the near-catastrophic incident where it belongs: on the candidate's management style (or lack thereof). "McCain, it's fair to say, was not a big believer in organization," Draper writes. "The important decisions were all made by him, with various confidants of ambiguous portfolio orbiting around him and often colliding with one another." Draper writes of the tensions between McCain's own "Iron Triangle" of John Weaver, Mark Salter and Rick Davis and how those tensions eventually created a power void in the campaign into which Schmidt stepped. Absolutely fascinating stuff.


• The germ of the Sarah Palin pick began with an interview in 2007 on "The Charlie Rose Show" where the Alaska governor faced off with Arizona Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano. The interview caught the eye of campaign manager Rick Davis; "what he liked was how she stuck to her pet issues -- energy independence and ethics reform -- and thereby refused to let Rose manage the interview," writes Draper of Davis' reaction to Palin's performance. Schmidt was on board with the pick early on; Salter was convinced later after meeting with Palin personally.


• Politicians hate to be publicly psychoanalyzed (who wouldn't?) but Draper deftly paints the mind of McCain. "The flipside of John McCain's metanarrative of personal valor has always been palpable self righteousness," he writes, adding that McCain's sense of code and honor has been violated by his perception of the unfairness of the media coverage and by the fact that he does not believe that Obama is ready to be president. That contempt for both the media and his opponent has come out on the campaign trail -- most notably during the final presidential debate when McCain's eye-rolling and exasperation at Obama's answers were a major part of the post-debate analysis. "By extension then, if the McCain campaign's conduct would appear to be at odds with the man's 'true character', it is only because the combination of a dishonorable opponent and a biased media has forced his hand," Draper writes. "Or so goes the rationale for what by this month was an increasingly ugly campaign."