...as the band played on

If I were McCain's advisor... wow what a question.

Well it's obvious that something's not working, unfortunately the shots you are taking are hard to volley, your credibility, as a Republican, on the economy is a negative number, and Obama is showing better in the polls.

Now, we have to talk damage control. First of all, it's time to recapture the economy issue. Republicans are historically far more credible on responsible spending. Go after Obama where it hurts, hit him right in the porkbarrel. Try to muddy up his image on the economy and then go double-whammy.

Republicans have credibility about debt, and in the midst of a massive mortgage crisis, it's suddenly REALLY easy to bring the otherwise brain-warping issue of national debt down to the public's level. Use mortgage analogies, talk about the federal debt, talk about liquidity, attack the democratic party as a whole not just Obama.

another other issue is age. Regan's issue was age too, he won the election with a single line: "I will not exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." Pull the same. It's time to frame as Chris Mathews puts it in "Hardball," Frame this as a great contest between age and youth, experience and energy.

Palin is a foot-in-mouth machine, minimize her. Sure at the debates the gaffs were minimal, but she's more-or-less a laughingstock, get her out of the public eye and someplace her skeletons don't get turned into powerful charges leveled at you.

In short: Switch to issues where you have natural credibility, distance yourself from the republican regime, reframe the debate and put skeletons back in closets, the deeper the better.