McCain's "Bye Week" is a Godsend ...

Matt Lewis | March 08, 2008 6:08 PM

This morning on Fox, I was asked how John McCain can stay in the spotlight while everyone focuses on the more exciting race between Obama and Hillary.

In response, I argued that McCain's break right now is sort of like when a football team gets a bye week. In some cases, a week off makes a team "rusty." But in other cases -- usually if the team is beat up and really needs to heal -- a bye week can be a Godsend for a football team.

My argument is that McCain represents the latter example. Because McCain had to come from behind to win the GOP nomination, he is sort of like a football team who started off the season four and six, and then had to win their last six consecutive games to make it into the playoffs. In short, the McCain campaign is tired, and the party is a bit banged up. If anyone can use some time to regroup, it's the McCain campaign. Meanwhile, the Democrats will be "playing" every week. And some of these "games" might result in key injuries.

While Hillary and Obama are duking it out and bickering over petty politics, McCain can work on doing things he desperately needs to achieve: uniting the party, building a campaign infrastructure, and raising money. He won't have to worry about the Democrats defining him, because they will be too busy trying to take down each other. And, on top of that, he can also travel to places like Iraq, thus highlighting his national security experience, -- and appearing "presidential" -- which will contrast him to the bickering Democrats very nicely.