Remember earlier in the year when Obama was accused of playing the race card for predicting Republicans would try to scare voters into thinking “he’s not like us.” A lot of people are now giving him credit for his prescience, but honestly how hard is it to predict McCain’s game plan when he’s relying on the same playbook that Republicans have used the last two elections?
McCain has one last Hail Mary option that might work. He can fire Steve Schmidt and all other reminiscences of Karl Rove that are currently running his campaign into the ground and publicly apologize to the American people for losing control. He then has to promise to take the high road from here on out, and actually follow through.
Sure, it might be seen as another stunt, but revamping his staff has worked for him before. Although he has lost a lot of credibility in the last few weeks, his former image as an honest maverick might be lingering around enough to make him seem sincere. And what does he really have to lose? Negative character attacks aren’t working. Why not try the opposite?
I’m not saying I would buy it. But it’s something that a lot of voters—probably including Obama—wouldn’t see coming.