Media wonders why McCain is staying on offense

Jonathon Martin:

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“If we had done what I asked Sen. Obama to do, because I’ve been in a lot of other campaigns where I have appeared with the opposition with the people and listened to their hopes and dreams and aspirations, I don't think you’d see the tenor of this campaign,” he said.

That’s the candidate’s public answer — and one that a former adviser suggested that McCain may have convinced himself to believe is true.

Current campaign aides and other Republicans who’ve closely watched the race, however, have a very different response to the media elites and good-government scolds: We don’t care what you think.

McCain seems to have made a choice that many politicians succumb to but that he had always promised to avoid — he appears ready to do whatever it takes to win, even it if soils his reputation.

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Rogers, who hung tough with McCain through the dark days of the primary and has lived through every high and low of this turbulent and unpredictable race, argues that they tried to run a high-ground campaign and sought to keep the candidate in front of the media in the fashion he enjoys. His point: No one paid any attention.

“We ran a different kind of campaign and nobody cared about us. They didn’t cover John McCain. So now you’ve got to be forward-leaning in everything,” he said.

Rogers concedes that they were understandably overshadowed by the historic Democratic primary through June, but contends that even after the general election began they could get attention only when McCain committed a gaffe.

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What the McCain campaign recognized was that the media was going to focus on Obama no matter what was don in the traditional sense by McCain. There brilliant answer was to focus on Obama too, by pointing out his deficiencies that were being overlooked by an adoring media.

With the media opposing him anyway, McCain had little to lose by ignoring the media and shaping his own narrative for the campaign. The media attacks on Palin have backfired so badly for the Obama campaign that the none of the hurricane of charges has gained any traction. She may not be Teflon coated, but she has shown she can take a blow and fight back hard.

There is literally no reason for McCain to go back to his old style. There are millions of votes out there to get by pointing out Obama's deficiencies. Palin is pulling in the base and many women voters to the consternation of the media and the left.

McCain has been able to keep Obama off balance since the Democrat Convention ended. I don't see him letting up just because teh media does not like it.