The three faces( images) of John McCain

A common misconception to this point in the '08 presidential election is that the McCain campaign is in disarary and has no winning theme. Quite to the contrary, there is slowly emerging a powerful 'accidental' strtegy which may well be unstoppable.

I say "accidental" because the strategy is not coming from his campaign, but being forced on the campaign by what works.

For the sake of analysis, let's assume three groups of voters: The least informed , the moderately informed, and the well informed. Of course these are not set, rigid groups, but the electorate may fairly be view against these markers, recognizing that the knowkedge of voters is on a continuum. Obama has one face, one image. McCain has three, and each image fits very well into the three electorate categories.

For the least informed , McCain is seen as a Navy pilot, shot down in some war, captured and tortured by a cruel enemy. So McCain in the enemy hospital bed picture.

For the moderately informed, McCain as the maverick. On ocassions disagreeing with his party, and most important, diverging at times from an unpopular President Bush. So McCain battling with Bush for the 2000 Republican nomination and calling Falwell and Robertson "agents of intolerance."

For the well informed, base of the party, McCain as the penitent, eschewing his 'liberal' tendencies by embracing a very hardline, rightwing stance. 'Family values' all the way; use of torture , anti-gay, progun, security at all costs, conservative supreme justices---all , by the way, a reversal in many ways from the image of the moderately informed. This is not 'flip-flopping', but like Romney, a seeing of the light, a conversion.

All three of these McCain's are 'real' in some ways, at some times. As the presidential campaign goes on, his advisors can emphasize each of the three as circumstances determine. The three together may be unstopable.