The skies lost, McCain's only hope lies in winning the war on the ground

Washington, Oct 25 : Republican presidential candidate John McCain has lost the advertisement and earned media war, and it is too late to win the skies back, but the only hope now is for his campaign to win the war on the ground.

Advertisements and earned media are what make an air war, and the air war is what drives the ground game. Trouble is that there has been a complete lack of message discipline at the McCain campaign.

Now it is entirely up to McCain's field troops to deliver victory, FOX News reported.

McCain advertisements thus far have done little to persuade voters that he is the best man to be President.

His rival Barack Obama is for change; John McCain is against Senator Obama, Bill Ayers, spending, Bill Ayers, Paris Hilton, Bill Ayers, hippies, and of course Bill Ayers.

The new Joe the Plumber ads are good, but with days to go in this election, it is too late to adequately develop this theme. Moreover, these ads provide yet another reason to vote against Obama, not for McCain.

McCain campaign efforts to win over the media were just as ineffectual. When McCain was not suspending his campaign, or criticizing Washington spending, he was supporting big government spending like the financial bailout bill.

Though there were over a half dozen prominent articles in the press profiling the McCain staff, these articles highlighted personality at the expense of a campaign thematic.

The complete lack of message discipline has given the McCain campaign a certain "Jack in the box" quality: The campaign moved slowly to a stilted old melody, until a puppet jumped out and startled everyone.

The puppet went back into the box, only to jump out again and again. Think Sarah Palin being pulled out of thin air, only to be put back in a box and hidden from view; or John McCain fighting against wasteful spending, then surprising everyone with his proposal to purchase mortgages; or the campaign suspension drama.

None of it worked for John McCain. Nor should it have. Voters are too sophisticated to march to the polls over Paris Hilton or Bill Ayers alone. Voters want something to vote for, and it cannot be for the opportunity to be surprised by their president every two weeks or so.

Old battlegrounds remain, as new fronts open. Now, the GOP must to duke it out in Virginia and North Carolina.

ANI