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By Michael Scherer / WASHINGTON Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

As he tried to jump-start his flagging campaign earlier this week, John McCain uttered a new rallying cry: "We've got them just where we want them." But even his die-hard supporters had to question that assessment. According to countless public polls, McCain's campaign has been losing, not gaining ground. No candidate wants to be down about seven points nationwide with no clear momentum and less than three weeks to go.

Without a doubt the two main factors are the financial crisis and the presidential debates. When Lehman Brothers collapsed on Sept. 14, McCain still led the national polls by about two points. For McCain, the subsequent fallout proved to be a triple whammy, reminding voters about the benefits of government regulation (a traditionally Democratic argument), highlighting the failure of leadership of the current White House and accelerating the nation's collective sense that it has been heading in the wrong direction.

McCain Drove into a House Republican Wall. At the height of the financial crisis, John McCain took a big, and many would say ill-advised, risk, announcing he was suspending his campaign and even threatening to skip the first debate to get "in the arena," as his hero Teddy Roosevelt put it. He returned to Washington and attempted to demonstrate a type of leadership on the financial crisis that would distinguish him from Obama's more hands-off approach. The effort to help craft a bipartisan bailout plan had muddled results, mainly because McCain's influence among House Republicans, the crucial voting bloc, was limited.

Sarah Palin Needed a Crash Course She Never Got. The selection of Palin as McCain's running mate was initially a coup. It shocked the nation, rocketed McCain in the polls, especially among white women, and solidified support among the GOP base. McCain rallies suddenly rivaled Obama's rallies in enthusiasm and size. But while media scrutiny of Palin's record started to damage her maverick credibility (can you say Bridge to Nowhere?), her bubble truly got deflated by Katie Couric. Palin's two weeks of interview broadcasts on CBS Evening News coincided with a collapse in her approval ratings and a loss of McCain's gains among white women. In the interviews, Palin showed a lack of understanding of a number of key federal issues, including the debate over the constitutional right to privacy that forms the basis of Roe v. Wade, McCain's policy on Pakistan and the record of Vice President Dick Cheney. After Couric was done, Saturday Night Live took over.

Source: http://snipurl.com/4u4x3 [www_time_com]