Shooting Obama out of the sky (again)

John McCain "has gotten inside Barack Obama's OODA loop," wrote Michael Barone (and others) recently, explaining that "For a fighter pilot, that means honing in above and behind the adversary so you can shoot him out of the sky. For a political candidate, it means acting in such a way that the opponent's responses again and again reinforce the points you are trying to make and undermine his own position." Above, "the OODA loop in practice" over Vietnam (Thanks to Bill in the comments for the correction) from HG's World.

"As you know, I'm an old Navy pilot, and I know when a crisis calls, it's all hands on deck," John McCain deadpanned before assembled reporters yesterday, once again catching his opponents off guard — as he did three weeks ago by disorienting the immediate world with his bold choice of Governor Sarah Palin as running mate — by announcing he would put his campaign on hold to join Senate colleagues in the ongoing financial crisis debate, maneuvering his opponent into a position where Obama had no choice but to do the same, if only for a few hours. Even as members of the commentariat on both sides of the aisle were all over the map wondering what this latest "risky" move might mean, our own gut reaction was the same thrill of hope against hope — can you say "landslide"? — we had experienced when Sarah Oakley Palin came out of the gate. As we blogged then, "Oh, yeah!"

Consider, first, a "half-time" report early this afternoon on what goes on behind closed Senatorial doors (our own transcriptions from Fox News live).

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) — appointed by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to be the negotiator representing the Republicans — is crediting "the arrival of McCain and Obama in Washington yesterday with moving things along and focussing the nation's attention on the [financial crisis]." McConnell adds that "Both of them [McCain and Obama] being there yesterday underscored the significance of moving forward on a bipartisan basis and doing it quickly."

Go, Johhny go! Now listen to Fox News' grand-poobah-in-residence Chris Wallace, a member in good standing of what we term the fuddy-duddy community — J.R. Dunn's "Northeast Corridor conservatives" who "could not comprehend Sarah Palin or what she represents, any more than the liberal-left could" — telling Martha McCallum that he has good news and bad news for McCain now that Congress has gone back to work and tonight's Oxford, Mississippi debate will go forward:

The bad news is that he looked a little silly climbing up on his white horse. The good news is that once he gets up on that stage tonight, people are going to forget what happened in the last 36 hours. They will be concentrating on how each candidate does in the debate.

WHO looks a little silly, Chris? We'll have to wait and see which way the election goes, but we're guessing the flyboy just shot you and your fellow Northeast Corridor conservatives out of the sky again.

Update: Fausta links, playing with our headline in "McCain knocks Obama off the headlines," a rollicking, link-and-image-rich read.

Update II:  "Nice political rant from SISU," says Maggie's News Junkie.

Comments

[Bill]

Minor point: although the HG's World article does include several Vietnam pictures, the one you reposted above isn't one of them- there most assuredly weren't any F-22 Raptors around then!

[Sissy Willis]

Thanks, Bill. I've corrected the copy. :-)

[Fred]

The practical effect of the McCain scoot to Washington was to get all the nations reporters in one place; Instead of half covering the campaign and half covering the bailout talks, they were all in Washington, focusing the nations interest.

This seems to have had a good effect.

[Gayle Miller]

If Senator McCain continues to shift the playing field on this neophyte national campaign as he has done so far, they aren't going to know whether to moisten their own BVDs or pull up their socks! Never mess with an old Navy pilot! And in the meantime, by putting America First as he proclaimed he would do in his campaign, he once again proved that he does honor his own stated values - unlike his opponent who has all the constancy of a snowflake on a raging hot griddle!

[sam]

Americans who support McCain are idiots who are just not capable of overcoming their racist views to vote for a highly intelligent black man. McCain is a gambler, he doesn't think, he gambles, and he will gamble with your well-being. He is not an honorable man . He's a liar and a cheater who will do just about anything to win. It doesn't matter if Palin performs well in the debate, she is not in her league. She's a pathetic woman who believes in sarcasm and talking trash. People who call themselves christians and support this ticket are simply hypocrits. There is a God and I know that he will intervene for Obama.