“Late to the Party” should be the name of John McCain’s next inevitable memoir. Win or lose, not only does it accurately sum up, for many, the presidential nominee’s standing in the GOP, it also is an apt description of his approach to running for the highest office in the land.

While political pundits, radio orators, and cable talking heads have spent the better part of the last year discussing and dissecting NObama’s relation to everyone from Jeremy Wright to William Ayers to ACORN to Jim Johnson, McCain conspicuously has not. 

Perhaps he intentionally steered clear of those topics in order to hold true to the promise he made of this being an honorable campaign. As well intentioned as that idea was, it was not then nor is it now, a realistic way to run a victorious campaign. McCain seems to have come to understand that. After months of side-stepping the questions or moments that would have allowed him to make character a central issue in the campaign, McCain has slowly but surely loosen the tether on both Sarah Palin and his own choke collar.

Unfortunately, McCain continues to come across as decidedly schizophrenic on the matter. One day he decries the personal attacks and any hint that these relations are relevant. The next he is trying to shoe horn twelve months’ worth of potentially potent ammunition into stump speeches on a maddeningly inconsistent basis. Such erratic application paints him as neither a sensitive, honorable contestant nor a serious contender. It is simply too haphazard to appear as anything more than ham handedly using feints and jabs to deliver a knockout blow. 

Palin seems comfortable in the role of attack dog for the campaign, but McCain’s increasingly mixed message not only infuriates his supporters but also unnecessarily casts Sarracuda in an unflattering light readily exploited by the mainstream media. Moreover, his failure to regularly follow up on the points she so deftly makes in essence cuts her legs out from under her.

Rush Limbaugh has recently taken to describing the current phenomenon as dragging McCain across the finish line. At times it does seem that McCain is unaware of the fact that he is not merely running against the Anointed One but the mainstream media, academia, the far left, the intelligentsia, and most of Hollyweird. 

In more than one debate appearance, McCain failed to hammer home important points, draw clear delineations between both himself and Barry Hussein (and at times even the non-ballot W.), and to confront The Once and Future King with his own poorly – perhaps strategically – chosen allies. Any or all of the above would have given the viewers at home a more transparent version of Nobama, a clearer measure of McCain the man, and supporters of the Arizona senator the knowledge that this candidate wants to win as much as they want him to and is willing to work at least as hard.