A week to go

The two candidates have now virtually no time to change the momentum in time for election day: McCain cannot capture enough attention on the national stage and Obama has shown himself remarkably accident proof.  Reasonable goals the McCain-Palin ticket can aim for must be to stop an all out rout of the Republican Party, ceding one party control of the White House and the two Houses of Congress.  There is also valuable work to be done by the Republicans to try and frame the debate and at least some of the issues that the new Obama Administration will take on.  How this is done without surrendering is going to be incredibly difficult for the Republicans.

Obama must seek as big a mandate as possible.  Only with a resounding endorsement will he have the power that, he should argue, the current situation necessitates.  The Democrats will have the poisoned legacy of a financial system in turmoil and a war to end.  The problem for them is that they will be expected to bring an elegant end to them both.  This is much easier to suppose than to execute.  Unless there is a clear timetable to work to six months passes remarkably quickly and that is about as long a political honeymoon as any person or party in power can expect.

Even with the conclusion of the election beyond doubt – there is much to play for in these last days.