A "prominent Republican strategist" blasts the McCain camp's Rovian turn toward partisan attacks in an email to Marc Ambinder:
"Insane. The GOP base vote is not in play. That's why we call it the base. [McCain] has it all; it is a generic vote and not candidate driven. Show me a Prez election where the key outcome driver was partisan base intensity. It is a myth. The winning vs. losing outcome is whether he can get the others he needs to win; and a pure partisan approach -- let alone a nagging and off-putting tone -- is exactly the way not to get them. They have the strategy of a Congressional candidate running in a base suburb, and barely even that."
And this comes from a person who is sympathetic to McCain!
Is that you, Mike Murphy?
--Christopher Orr