McCain prospects dim as race nears

By Kenneth J. Cooper

Boston, Oct. 24: Time is running out for Mr John McCain. So are his options for pulling off an upset over Mr Barack Obama next week. Mr McCain has even begun casting himself as the scrappy underdog against his Democratic opponent, who has topped 50 per cent in recent national polls. Mr Obama’s massive financial advantage and apparent lead in several swing states has narrowed the map that could possibly lead to a McCain majority in the Electoral College.

The Republican nominee has trimmed his advertising in those smaller states and focused on a big one, Pennsylvania, where the race remains close. The outlook is so bleak for Mr McCain that a respected political analyst has said trends would "argue strongly that this campaign is over" but for the memory of past upsets. Mr Charlie Cook, writing in the National Journal, added, "no candidate behind this far in the national polls, this late in the campaign has come back to win." What else could Mr McCain do to come back?

One tactic he is trying is to tarnish Mr Obama, stealthily, in automated telephone calls to targeted voters. Mr McCain cannot realistically hope to win as long as more voters, on balance, have a negative impression of him and a positive one of Mr Obama. Because Mr McCain’s public attacks on his opponent have backfired, his campaign and the Republican Party are directing the high-tech whisper campaign, which accuses Mr Obama of associating with radicals or domestic terrorists. It is a charge millions watched Mr Obama rebut in the last debate. Mr McCain’s last hope is for a major development in military affairs or foreign policy engineered by the Bush administration so Mr McCain could tout his combat experience anew. He desperately needs to change the subject from the economy, which polls show is most important to voters and benefits Mr Obama.

The writer is a former New Delhi-based South Asia bureau chief of the Washington Post and a Pulitzer Prize winner