McCain fully adopts the Rove campaign strategy, completing McCain's transformation into George Bush

By any measure, John McCain has had a rough couple weeks. But, in the embers of his failing campaign, a new strategy is emerging. We saw McCain make an outrageous, over the top attack on Obama's patriotism (video here) for which he refuses to back down. We saw McCain make a series of major gaffes on foreign policy issues, but he refuses to admit any mistakes, even when they are obvious.

Brutal character attacks. Stubborn refusal to admit mistakes. Sound familiar? It should. We saw it in the past two presidential elections. McCain is fully adopting the Rove strategy:

Bruce Merrill, professor emeritus at Arizona State University, said he felt McCain's refusal to back down in the face of contrary evidence was part of a new campaign strategy formulated by operatives brought on board from President George W. Bush's two successful White House bids.

"Ultimately, the strategy is to make voters doubt Obama's character," said Merrill, noting that modern campaigning plays not to real issues but to voter fears, emotions and visceral judgments.

This is the final step in the complete morphing of McCain into Bush. This is also the time for the Obama campaign to obliterate the McCain/Rove strategy before it starts taking hold.