Below The Beltway

With the latest polls showing that the negative strategy that even McCain apparently regrets isn’t working, and Republican insiders and columnists calling for a reboot, it looks like John McCain is throwing yet another Hail Mary Pass:

Three weeks before Election Day, John McCain on Monday unveiled a feisty new stump speech in which he portrayed himself as a scrappy fighter on the comeback trail against an opponent who’s already “measuring the drapes” in the Oval Office.

Appearing in Virginia Beach with his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain said to applause that “what America needs in this hour is a fighter, someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people.”

“Now, my friends, let me give you the state of the race today and some straight talk,” McCain said. “We have 22 days to go. We’re six points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending — take away your right to vote by secret ballot and labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq — and concede defeat in Iraq. Our troops — my friends, I won’t concede defeat. I’ll bring our troops home with victory and with honor.”

The audience responded with chants of: “John McCain! John McCain! John McCain!”

Referring to his more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, McCain continued: ” I know what fear feels like. It’s a thief in the night who robs your strength. I know what hopelessness feels like. It’s an enemy who defeats your will. I’ve felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. [Applause]I’m an American, and I choose to fight.

Here’s the video of the speech itself.

The new stump speech is likely to energize the base, possibly even more than the red-meat negative campaigning that Sarah Palin was spearheading last week. However, I’ve got to agree with Justin Gardner’s assessment of the new John McCain:

[M]aybe it’s just me, but does anybody else remember somebody saying she was a “fighter”? Of course at that time it meant Hillary could beat McCain in the election. So what does “fight” mean in this context? That he’s going to fight the banks back into liquidity? That he’s going to fight Iran into accepting our terms?

Fight. Fight. Fight.

If this is what McCain means by comeback, he is absolutely doomed. Nobody wants to fight any more. They want cooperation and solutions. Now more than ever.

More importantly, will it help arrest McCain’s decline and cut into Obama’s lead in the national polls and the Electoral College ?

NBC’s Chuck Todd is one analyst who has his doubts:

Todd is, as usual, largely correct. Unless we see serious movement away from Obama and toward McCain, and not merely a break of remaining undecided voters toward McCain, by this time next week, then this election is, for the most part over.

And if Todd is right that West Virginia is now in play, then McCain has big problems.

H/T: Donklephant