John_Schwada's Blog

John McCain’s got a problem: No one knows he exists. No media. No attention. No debates. No one to talk to but blue-haired ladies in Dubuque. It's like the old philosophy puzzle: If a McCain falls in the forest, does anyone hear it?

Do you really think the Fourth Estate’s sharpest, toughest newshounds are dogging McCain’s footsteps, double-checking his every claim, mussing up his hair, poking him in the ribs? No way. That’s a JV-media job – at least for now. So McCain is playing against the second team, in the wilderness.

Okay, maybe it’s not that bad. After all, McCain’s poll numbers are holding up, in a one-on-one with either Democrat. But what’s going to happen when the Dems finally settle their family feud?

McCain will be facing a very battle-tested rival – whether it’s Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. The Arizona senator is going to be fumbling over his notes or reading a script, badly, while his Democratic opponent will be looking right in the camera eye and smoothly delivering a rap – on just about any topic, in neat digestible sound-bites.

Practice makes perfect. Playing against the varsity-media helps. Obama and Clinton are getting a huge amount of practice selling themselves, defending themselves, getting their message across, in all sorts of formats. After 21 debates and countless news conferences, interviews and rallies, they’ve got it together.

Like it or not, if you can’t hold the public’s attention or the media’s then you slip into the Bob Dole syndrome…you may be likeable but who wants to listen to your tired legislative gobbledygook?

And that situation is particularly troublesome for McCain, who has admitted he can’t come anywhere near matching the fund-raising prowess of Clinton or Obama. Without a competitive paid-advertizing strategy, the McCain team is talking about having to get its message across through the news media – that means standing on a stage somewhere, making news….Good luck.