Analysis: McCain running out of time
Wednesday, 08 Oct 2008 04:46
John McCain: Has one debate remaining to land knockout blow on Barack Obama
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It is still premature to write off a candidate just weeks from election day in a race to the White House that has consistently surprised, but John McCain is running out of time and ideas.
The latest poll from Reuters/C-Span/Zogby puts Democratic nominee Barack Obama on 48 per cent, with his Republican rival behind on 45 per cent.
Four per cent of respondents were undecided in a poll with a 2.8 percentage point margin of error.
That four per cent could obviously still swing it for Mr McCain, but on the evidence of the second of three presidential debates, floating voters will still require more convincing to back either camp, especially McCain's.
Last week's opening debate between the two men was largely perceived as a win for Mr Obama and the early indications are that the Illinois senator has scored another narrow victory.
The 47-year-old was not entirely at home in the town hall-format, his answers often sounding like lectures, but he tried to give the audience of undecided voters a number of new reasons to back him for the White House.
Mr McCain on the other hand had little fresh material to convince sceptical electors; instead deciding to repeat a number of previous attacks: that Mr Obama is politically, callow, that he contributed to the demise of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that he "spoke loudly" by admitting he would consider military action in Pakistan.
It was not the only thing the 72-year-old repeated, with his answers increasingly becoming preceded by with the words "my friends" – a phrase he has been asked by advisers to not use as much.
At times Mr McCain appeared to lose his temper, snapping at moderator Tom Brakow when his opponent asked for follow-up time and referring to Mr Obama with a look and the words "that one".
In truth, neither nominee scored a knockout blow, and you expect the same will be said after they line up in Hampstead, New York.
But it is looking increasingly-likely that it will take a mistake from Mr Obama to hand the advantage back to Mr McCain, with the current economic turmoil on Wall Street reflecting most badly on the Republicans.
If the McCain team had hoped for that mistake to arrive in Tennessee, it did not come.
The build-up to the Nashville debate – the only one of the three to take place in Mr McCain's favoured town hall-format had seen increasingly-barbed exchanges between the campaign teams, with Mr Obama being linked to a domestic terrorist and the Democrats attempting to tar Mr McCain with a financial collapse in the late 1980s.
But whereas Mr Obama largely survived the attacks upon his inexperience and perceived inferiority on foreign policy, Mr McCain has still not managed to shake off the accusations he contributed to the failed policies of the Bush administration.
On tonight's basis, he may not ever.
Matthew Champion