McCain: à procura de um "insurgent issue"

Um post muito inteligente de Lynn Vavreck no blogue que o Departamento de Política de Princeton montou para estas eleições. Excertos:

Using terminology from The Message Matters (forthcoming from Princeton University Press), McCain is an insurgent candidate who needs to focus the election off of the economy and on to some other issue on which he is closer than Obama to most voters – and on which Obama is committed to an unpopular position.
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Talking about the economy when it helps the other guy is not a great insurgent issue. No insurgent candidate in the last half-century has beaten the predicted economic winner by talking about the economy more than anything else.
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So, when McCain says he wants to postpone Friday’s debate until a compromise and a deal is reached to bailout the nation’s struggling, “cratering” economy – I say, “I’ll bet he does.” Any time McCain is talking about the economy he is not talking about his insurgent issue, which means he is not making progress toward refocusing the election off of the economy and on to his issue. Unfortunately, the dramatic manner in which he suspended his campaign and shuffled off to Washington only underscores the importance of the economy as an issue in this election.