"Why should we elect John McCain?"

But in a strategy session of five McCain advisers — campaign manager Rick Davis, pollster Bill McInturff, strategist Steve Schmidt, ad-maker Fred Davis and strategist Greg Strimple — the back and forth revealed a fundamental problem. Fred Davis posed a question designed to give the campaign a central focus: “Why should we elect John McCain?” Tellingly, after several hours of debate, the five couldn’t reach a consensus.

“Without an overriding rationale, our campaign necessarily turned tactical rather than strategic,” one adviser recalls. “We focused more on why Obama should not be president, but much less on why McCain should be.”…

To several McCain advisers, Sen. McCain’s public show of dealing with the crisis by trying to broker a bailout deal between the president and Congress had fallen flat. “We completely blew it,” said one. “The execution of a potentially great move couldn’t have been worse.”