'McCain needs a strong message'

Brilliant suggestion:

Senator McCain must improve his standing with independents and moderates. . . . Interestingly, Senator McCain receives a 56% favorable rating among independents compared to Senator Obama who receives a 55% favorable rating among independents. The difference is that, Senator Obama has a 13-point advantage among these independent voters – 30% Senator McCain / 43% Senator Obama / 28% undecided. Again, Senator McCain needs a strong message to bring these voters back into the fold.

He "needs a strong message" -- doesn't matter what the message is, so long as it's "strong." Thanks for that, guys!

That's from a memo by McGlaughlin & Associates (more at the link) and if it's a fair sampling of the kind of "analysis" and advice McCain is getting nowadays, it's no wonder he's floundering. Another sample:

It's time for Republicans to develop a new brand of conservatism that directly contrasts on the issues to Senator Obama and the Democratic Party.

This kind of advice is useless, especially to a non-ideological candidate like McCain, who's likely to take it as carte blanche to say and do whatever strikes his fancy: "Look a me! I'm developing a new brand of conservatism!"

The only good thing in the memo is that hint that this "new" conservatism should "directly contrast on the issues" with Obama. Considering that Obama is a down-the-line 100% liberal, what this means is if Obama says "yes," and McCain says "no," then McCain would be taking a conservative position by the process of elimination.

The problem is, McCain has spent so much time hanging around Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold, his natural tendency is to go along with whatever liberals do. McCain can't get over his desire to make liberals to like him, which is the essence of his problem.

Politics means occasionally sticking your thumb in the other guy's eye. It's inevitable; you can't make 100% of the people happy. But McCain's spent the past 10 years sticking it to conservatives, and it appears to be a hard habit to break.