TRACKERS

Posted at 1:44 p.m. ET

The three trackers for Saturday have been published.  (Battleground doesn't publish on weekends.)  As reported below, Rasmussen has Obama up six.  Gallup has him up five, a two-point gain from yesterday.  Hotline has him up five as well, as loss of two from yesterday.  All trackers were taken before the debate, but do reflect McCain's decision to suspend his campaign and return to Washington to work on the financial crisis.

There's still more than a month to go before the election.  Can McCain turn it around?  Yes, he can.  But something has to change for him to do so, and it's tough to figure out what that might be.  The debate was at best a draw for him.  The vice-presidential debate, this Thursday, will probably be difficult, as Sarah Palin has not shown herself adept at anything but set speeches.  The next two presidential debates are on subjects on which Obama has the edge.  Last night, Obama clearly aimed at making the nation feel comfortable with him, and succeeded.  The only way to deal with that performance is to raise questions as to whether that was the real Obama.  Deception is part of his game.

Press bias, which we've said for months is a key to this campaign, is greater than ever.  Any step McCain takes will be seen as "desperation" or "erratic."  There is no shame left in the press.  Their sixties dream is about to come true, and they will not be denied. 

The financial crisis will still dominate the news, a minus for McCain.  His party, wrongly, is blamed for the whole thing.  The Dems will milk it.  Any bailout package will be resented by the American people, properly so, even if McCain gets credit for improving it. 

And still, no reporter asks about the strange timing of this financial crisis. 

So for McCain, the road back is very tough.  If I were him, I'd go on a Truman-style whistlestop, with Sarah Palin, across the country.  I'd also raise the gravest doubts about Obama, even if the press cries "smear."  It will cry it no matter what he does.

And, if I were McCain, I'd hope that the good sense of the American people prevails, and that voters start to wonder whether, in a time of crisis, they want to turn the United States of America over to a young man from Chicago street politics whose currently stated "views" seem entirely inconsistent with his unusual and troublesome political past.

September 27, 2008.