John McCain’s campaign took a big step when they created the McCain Report. Michael Turk has written on this. I am struck by a new post from the campaign’s Director of Strategy, Sarah Simmons. She’s senior staff whose opinions drive large-scale strategic decisions made by the campaign. And she is telling you on their blog what they are thinking:
John McCain continues to defy expectations. We all (pollsters, pundits and campaign leadership) were braced for a Barack Obama bounce — like a pretty big one. The great news: it hasn’t really materialized, not yet anyway. Yes, he’s seen a bounce — daily tracking polls show him up around 6-points — but that’s a far cry from the hype that many of our friends on cable news had been selling.
And, two major polls released in the past 24 hours are full of good news for the campaign — Diageo/Hotline shows Senator McCain trailing by 2 points overall, but we lead by 10 points with independents. WSJ/NBC shows Senator McCain trailing by 6 points, but the same poll shows Senator McCain has big leads with suburban women and white men.