McCain is running a canny campaign

It looked in the beginning as if the McCain campaign group was doing nothing at all.  They were just dormant, though, ready to explode.  They came up with a series of great ads that highlighted the creepy personality cult building around Obama.  They timed the VP announcement perfectly to suck the air out of Obama’s rather pedestrian “big” speech.  And they got everyone in a tizzy (which also distracted from the Obama moment) by announcing their intention to air an exciting ad during the Democratic convention.  Clearly, everyone thought, McCain was going to horn in on Obama’s show and get nasty.  Instead, McCain took an exceptionally high road:

When John McCain promised a surprise TV campaign ad tonight responding to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, most expected him to slam the Democrat – but the actual spot was surprisingly kind.

The McCain camp earlier today touted its decision to run a commercial during the Democratic convention featuring the Republican nominee addressing Obama directly through the camera.

“Suffice to say it’s going to be a very exciting ad, and I think it’s going to get a lot of attention,” McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker told MSNBC.

The media was gearing up for a blistering attack, but the soft-focus advert instead showed McCain praising Obama for a “job well done”.

“Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed,” McCain said in the commercial, which will air tonight in Colorado and Iowa. “But I wanted to stop and say congratulations … tomorrow we’ll be back at it. But tonight, senator [Obama], job well done.”

You can see the ad here.

McCain and his crew immediately went back to campaign business as usual, but this act of graciousness was smart — especially when contrasted against the unusually nasty tone of Obama’s acceptance speech.