Recommended reading: John Helleman

Josh Marshall of TPM picked this one as a must-read and I'm passing it on.

John Helleman of New York magazine (not to be confused with The New Yorker of Barack and Michelle cartoon cover fame) analyzes the McCain attack strategy, the rationale behind it and its chances:

...the motor behind his operation now is Steve Schmidt, the shaven-headed strategist who earned his bones running Karl Rove’s war room in 2004, Frenchifying and de-war-heroizing John Kerry. What Schmidt and his associates have apparen tly concluded is that McCain’s weaknesses—on the election’s most salient issues and as a candidate—are so pronounced and Obama’s vulnerabilities so glaring that the low road is their guy’s best, and maybe only, route to the White House.