McCain going negative only hurts McCain

This must drive the right-wingers nuts because they were cheering on his attack ads and telling each other that all he needed to do was attack more.

After several weeks in which the McCain campaign unleashed a series of strong political attacks on Mr. Obama, trying to tie him to a former 1960s radical, among other things, the poll found that more voters see Mr. McCain as waging a negative campaign than Mr. Obama. Six in 10 voters surveyed said that Mr. McCain had spent more time attacking Mr. Obama than explaining what he would do as president; by about the same number, voters said Mr. Obama was spending more of his time explaining than attacking.

Over all, the poll found that if the election were held today, 53 percent of those determined to be probable voters said they would vote for Mr. Obama and 39 percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain.

Of course, it's not entirely McCain's fault he's slipping behind. After all, he didn't cause the current economic crisis. He has certainly failed to capitalize on it though, and it appears that anti-Republican sentiment is so strong he can't overcome it with his "Maverick" image. But to ensure his doom, he went negative at precisely the wrong time. Then again, there's not much else he could have done.

Polling right now is looking ever better for Obama. As this article says, according to their poll Obama has a 14 point overall lead. That's pretty amazing. And it's about 100% unlikely McCain can recover in the bare 3 weeks he has left.