McCain appears to be attempting to play a low-risk game in the campaign. True, the NRA has endorsed him, but many members and other gun owners remember how NRA condemned him as co-sponsor of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

If he appears too cozy with the NRA, that’s sure to come up, and that discussion would undoubtedly lead to questions about his evidently having been coerced into co-sponsoring BCRA in return for the lightest penalty given out to the Keating Five.

Obama has far less to lose, less personal history to account for, and is young enough that if he loses he will run again.

These are the reasons why McCain was the wrong choice as a Presidential candidate.

McCain should play up the gun rights issue..the gun owners are certainly paying attention to what Obama will do.
I agree that McCain was a bad choice for our candidate but that was decided early on by some states with bad primary rules and possibly some plotting by some of the other candidates to knock the true conservatives out. Thompson would have made a good candidate but he didn’t get “into it” until too late.
The news media and liberals have been trying to convince Republicans that they have to be moderates to get anywhere, and to an extent this farce has been effective.
There, too, having to campaign against a smooth talking empty suit who will say anything to get elected has it’s problems.

I have to agree with Sullivan (for at least this once…)

Obama is massively talented, to have achieved what he has done.

Whether that’s worth a hill of beans to the country if/when he is President is another matter.

The man happened to choose politics as his field. If he’d been doing sales/motivation seminars, he’d be a billionaire by now.

And, as Biden observed, he’s CLEAN.

Obama’s talent is as an orator and a quick learner. Being a quick learner is good if what you learn means anything to you. He has learned how to work a crowd, deliver a speech, be smooth and polished. We didn’t give Reagan credit for any of that. As for Obama’s color..he’s the only one who makes a big deal out of that. I would readily vote for black or female President if I thought they were good candidates.
What has Obama had time to learn? There is no record of anything except voting “present” so there is no paper trail, and as for what he has voted for lately, the only thing he “sponsored” is that heinous bill that gives the UN control over practically everything in our country along with mega bucks from us to pay for it all.
Read about Hitlers rise to power and see the similarities. He was practically an unknown, too. He promised CHANGE, too.

John McCain is what he is, a liberal populist who has always been much more at home with the present Democrat politicians that he has with Republicans. He is not a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights and therefor avoids discussing them whenever possible. There are several other areas that he is not comfortable in addressing in an election year [abortion, illegal immigration, and global warming to name a few]. As flawed as John McCain may be, from a Conservative perspective, he is light years to the right of Barack Obama; who is rapidly proving to be a totalitarian communist.