Forget Bill Ayers.

As despicable a character as I think Ayers is, and as much as I despise the cynical Obama’s willingness to associate with the scumbag to further his own vain ambitions, this is not the issue that will win the election for the GOP. Heck, I felt Obama should be disqualified more by the anti-American comments of his ignoramus wife. But I think we, as conservatives, may overestimate the degree to which Obama’s anti-American tendencies might be playing with the electorate out there. Alot of average Americans aren’t too happy with their country, either, right now.

As John McCain well knows, a key part of any winning battle strategy is to be able to assess changing conditions on the ground and be able to react and respond appropriately. Think about it, folks. Conditions on the ground do not look anything like they did even a few short weeks ago. Parts of our economy are in free fall. The S&P 500 has dropped almost 30% since MAY! For the tens of millions of Americans that own stocks(probably 60-70% of likely voters) these are very scary times. I thought of this as I sat down with my wife to review our financial condition over the weekend. We, like many Americans have taken a significant body blow to our net worth. The numbers were a little eye popping when you really looked at them. We’re talking about adding 3-5 more years to retirement kinds of setbacks.

The last thing any investor would want to do when things are tanking is to add additional RISK. RISK is one of those words that people have an emotional reaction to. When something is new and unknown like Obama is, it can be portrayed one of two ways. It is either “fresh” or “risky”. Obama likes to portray himself as something fresh. McCain needs to let people know he is risky. And the last thing we need in troubled times is RISK.