mccain keeps searching

I blogged recently about the McCain campaign and its search for a coherent message.

Recent events are not especially encouraging. The turn to Steve Schmidt and other disciples of Karl Rove suggests, well, a more Rovian campaign and less of a "reform" focus of the type I and others like me would prefer to see. This is apparently one reason that Mike Murphy, the brains behind much of McCain's 2000 appeal, did not sign on as a full-time participant, although he will apparently continue to play an advisory role.

McCain looks more relaxed at recent events, and Schmidt will undoubtedly bring a higher degree of discipline to the campaign. Obama's tilt to the center also provides an opening for McCain to attack him for inconsistency, although he himself is subject to similar attacks. But the McCain campaign remains weirdly disconnected, as if shopping around for a theme rather than a way to convey it: not an especially good place for a campaign, let alone a Presidency, four months before the election.