Rejuvenating John McCain's Campaign Requires...

D: Be afraid of the scary foreign uppity black man. Vote for the American.

Thanks for your insightful contribution, Gabriel... Here's mine: D) own the issue of energy independence. Own it up and down, side-to-side. Hammer the ever-loving crap out of it.

Hey, I call like I see it. Charlie Black knows what time it is; you'll see. If McCain wants to win, he knows what he has to do.

Pundino McCain will never win on that issue because he is terrible on it. The only thing mccain is for that is important is Nuclear and people have a big problem with that. Your advice is like telling Obama to own National security. It would be nice if people saw things that way but they won't. My advice for McCain push the surge and claim Obama wants to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, say some mean shit about bush and really distance yourself from him. Reinvent a republican identity more than you have before. Let the conservative republicans stay at home if they want an obama victory, be clear that you want pro life judges. Most people are pro choice but few people that you have a shot with will have a clear pro life message be a deal breaker for you. You probably would have been better off being a crazy xenophobic nationalist but it is too late for that now so um be for a fence, a good tactic would be to be pro immigration but anti illegal immigration and make that crystal clea. Do all this and you will probably still lose but your alternative is that Obama has another reverend Wright level problem yet to come up. Also be less old and dumb. Marc, this is a better poll. I would say that it is too wordy and specific so it forces people to chose the best fit among things that they don't want to say. The questions should be information poor, like A)run on record of bipartisanship, B)invigorate the base, C) improve but don't alter your current message. That is advice!

He doesn't have to emphasize the nuclear part (although the public desperately needs to be educated on it)...he can emphasize offshore drilling, which the public is for a 2-to-1 margin, and which will certainly attract Democratic defectors. I think he can absolutely own energy independence; he can paint it as crucial to national security while simultaneously addressing economic issues. To each their own, though, of course. As for Gabriel: believe what you like. Needless t osay, I think your interpretation is hopelessly cynical, but that's just my opinion.

Well done, Ambinder. It's refreshing to find one non-tendentious poll buried in the flood of sewage you call your "reported blog."