Beyond the Dome

There has been a notable shift in the tone of John McCain’s campaign since Steve Schmidt, a former Hill press secretary and a veteran of President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign, took over the day-to-day operations from campaign manager Rick Davis earlier this month. Now, the attacks on Barack Obama are so constant that there are days when there is almost nothing else coming out of the campaign.

The negative tone has been earning McCain some scathing press coverage lately. The Washington Post took the unusual step of running a front-page feature today scolding McCain for repeatedly accusing Obama of cancelling a visit to a military hospital in Germany because he couldn’t take the press with him, “despite no evidence that the charge is true.” He has been roundly criticized for charging that Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”

More worrisome to some Republicans, the constant attacks have effectively allowed Obama, rather than McCain, to set the narrative for this election. “They need to be on offense. I think it’s been too defensive,” said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, a top party strategist who is retiring at the end of this year.

But there doesn’t seem to be any widespread anxiety among Hill Republicans about how the past few weeks have gone for the McCain campaign. If anything, some of them think the increased aggressiveness means the campaign is finally getting its act together.

“I think what you’re seeing is the McCain campaign is finally hitting its stride,” said Rep. Zach Wamp of Tennessee. “If you don’t define your opponent, they will define you. McCain is going to do a better job defining Obama than the other way around.”

Part of the issue for Republicans is not just the message of the McCain campaign, but how well he’s organizing in the battleground states. “What they need to do is get a good organization in place in the key states,” said Davis. “There’s about 20 of them that will make the difference. And I’m not sure they’ve done that yet.” But since most voters won’t really tune in until after Labor Day, Davis said, that’s when it will matter.

And Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina thinks it’s a good sign that Obama hasn’t gotten a “bounce” in the polls since his international trip last week. He thinks McCain is on “the right side of the war, the right side of energy right now.” And he believes McCain’s support for offshore oil exploration might turn the race around for him — especially if Senate Republicans force a showdown with Democrats over the issue in September, when a spending bill to fund the federal government for the rest of the year could become a platform for another debate over offshore drilling.

The challenge for McCain, though, will be to make sure these kinds of fights change the campaign narrative enough so that he becomes the focus again.