The Republican Base Is Costing McCain Any Chance of Being Competitive

Jonathan Martin looked earlier today at the incredible anger, and frankly, mob mentality taking over at GOP rallies. Howard Wolfson gets at the essence of the problem for McCain:

Instead of focusing on Ayers Senator McCain might have chosen to spend a day outlining a comprehensive solution to the mess we are in.  But that would require an understanding of the problem and an idea of how to fix it — which John McCain clearly does not have.

Right now the McCain campaign is having a conversation with itself and the Republican base, while the rest of the country — and Barack Obama — is focused on the greatest economic meltdown since the Depression.  It’s not a good place for John McCain to be less than a month before the election.

There is clearly not enough people angry about Obama to tip the election to McCain. He needs to persuade indepdents and undecideds - people who are overwhelming concerned about the economy. And yet, his base is so completely unreasonable that he can’t do that. Of course, as Wolfson points out, McCain’s messaging on the economy has also been terrible. But determination, or even a halfway decent economic message combined with attack ads might have a chance of succeeding; going all negative with tenuous if any links to the economy will appeal to the base.

This also gets at a bigger problem with McCain. In earlier days, he’d have no problem educating voters at town halls. Now? He’s just swamped by the anger. In New Hampshire, he was Hercules, sending navigable bodies of water wherever he wanted, Now, McCain is just being dragged under by the undertoe. I can’t help but get the impression that McCain is shellshocked and unable to formulate a response of his own.

See Daily Show video on economy here.