Obama by making himself the center of the campaign has effectively decided to lock himself in. This election was supposed to be about Bush. Obama made it about Obama. He can’t change his campaign without altering the image of himself, around which his political message is largely built. That’s why in a clash between policy and person, Obama will change the policy. He will flip-flop. This is the only degree of freedom he has.

McCain for deliberate or accidental reasons, waited until Obama was locked into a course. He let Obama build the edifice of himself, brick by brick, until it was as immovable as the statue of Ozymandias. BHO set the capstone in Germany. He was the One. Then McCain really pounced. He had to get inside Obama’s OODA loop once, strategically. And he did this by cannilly waiting until BHO was in a powerdive, his controls frozen by compressibility. Obama can maneuver tactically and talk about Republicans being “proud of their ignorance” which is another tin-eared example, if any were needed, of how unlike an organizer BHO is. He doesn’t seem to get tired of insulting the great unwashed. But that’s it. He is the One that he has made himself.

And McCain, despite the deficiencies of his own vehicle, might actually be able to shoot BHO down.