Whoever controls the message controls the perceived reality. And perception is everything!

Virtually nothing happens in a political campaign except that it is designed to happen.

Straight Talk Express and Maverick, are efforts by John McCain's campaign to control his message and create a desired perception that he is the kind of politician who can be trusted to speak the truth about everything regardless of the consequence to his future political fortunes. In other words, McCain has and will have the best interests of all the people as his guiding principles at all times.

McCain has used his example as a former P.O.W. to create the perception that he will do what is right for the military, the service members, the veterans and national Defense policies because "he has been there and done that". It is an emotional issue and McCain's handlers are masters at manipulating emotions to form perceptions. Unfortunately, McCain's voting record and actions have shown that he does not perform as advertised. In an effort to control the perception that McCain is not pro military, veteran and service members, McCain repeatedly says over and over that he supports them. Repetition has been proven an effective tool in forming perception as shown by polls concerning McCain's stance on these issues.

Negative ads work when there is little time to compare the ad with the truth. But given too much time, the negative begins to pale because the shock has worn off (its old news) and people have continued on. But a little of the negative emotion remains in the subconscious. Therefore it is necessary to repeat the negative in new and fresh ways to maintain the negative emotion and heighten the negative which was left from before. And it may be necessary to add more negative ads to complete the task of perception change.

Going negative in defining the opponent is another way McCain tries to change the Obama perception. McCain has been spending so much time and money to connect Obama with Re. Wright and Ayers that he has wasted that time and money because most people have moved beyond Wright and Ayers. In McCain is spending resources going negative, he loses that time and money for other things.

That's why McCain isn't speaking to the issues of the day. That's why McCain isn't talking about the Financial Melt-Down of Wall Street, or the Wall Street Bail Out, or the affect this will have on middle class Americans on Main Street USA. He has spent that time and money trying to define how we perceive Obama. While wasting time and money in this effort, McCain has managed to change his own Brand, and that is the risk of perception manipulation.

Because McCain was so busy trying to define Obama, he did not spend enough time defining himself as a leader who can get a handle on the melt-down and save the economy and America. Meanwhile, his lackluster performance defined himself as someone out of touch with the issues and the people. McCain defined himself as unable to lead while Obama, in spite of the McCain efforts to paint him as otherwise, showed that he was not only capable of handling the issues, but that he also has the interest of the people at heart. McCain defined himself as someone who would do anything, say anything to win a campaign.

McCain's gamble has cost him dearly, and may cost him the election.