[DJRoss]

The strategy itself puts McCain on the defensive which is not a place he is wants to be right now. Any negative comments about "Romney's" insensitive push to speak early would be construed as sour grapes. It forces McCain to either accept what happened quietly and realize that Romney trumped him out of free publicity (remember the horrible faux inaugural speech McCain gave in New Hampshire), or he can rage against it, thus providing more ammunition as to why the senator from Arizona is not fit for office.

Mike calls me small, but at least I entertain the idea that it was a calculated effort on Romney's campaign to do this. It could be as silly as payback for all the negative crap McCain has been spewing the past two weeks while telling everyone how clean he runs his campaign. It could be more calculated as I mentioned earlier. Just because it is protocol doesn't mean it is entitled.

McCain couldn't handle the Ad Storm that Romney threw at him from the start. He couldn't handle his record being hung out there for all to see. So he began to counter with ads that used newspaper articles that slammed Mitts Character. Not his record, not his position on the issues, but his character. Than McCain continued his assault on Romney's character in debates and during his campaigning. Romney jumped into the drivers seat quickly in Michigan and began a positive focus on the future of Michigan. He was all about the economy.

McCain began to try and diffuse this through a comparative campaign that would put Romney in a bad light regarding his fiscal acumen. That wasn't working so he began throwing out Character sortees regarding Mitt trying to buy this election, and when that didn't work he immediately began echoing Romney's policies and plans as if McCain had an economic bone in his body. If Romney's campaign pushed McCains concession speech aside, it is a strong message to McCains people that backlash sucks big time.

Again some people here have a Patrician view of politics, which makes me grin.