Patriot Games

Gallup's latest tracking has derailed Plouffe & Co's plans to downplay any post-trip expectations for (what's it called again? oh yeah ...) "bounce." Just the image contrasts alone (think deli cases and the Dali Lama vs. Berlin and Petraeus), were enough to give Obama the news cycle win. Now that Obama's back home, how does McCain go about winning it back?

-- One way, of course, is to air a hard-hitting ad about Obama's troop-visit snub. But will the "patriotism" card work as well as it did in '04? Sure, Obama's undefined and has fewer military/foreign policy creds than Kerry did. But a break from the status quo is the driving force this year. If McCain wants to convince voters he represents a change from the Bush-model, does this ad do it? Or is it reminiscent of the attacks voters have seen on the airwaves for the last 8 years?

-- Then again, maybe it won't matter. In the end, if voters still don't believe Obama is qualified, McCain doesn't need to promise "change" as much as he promises to be "safe".