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WASHINGTON

The McCain effort reflects one of the greatest in quantity remarkable aspects of the 2008 campaign: Obama has turned himself into the central form in American party politics. That is any extraordinary achievement, but it comes at a cost.

One cost was measured by a fascinating Pew Research Center study released last week finding that 48 percent of those surveyed

There was advantageous reason for this: From mid- to sometime since February until only the last week or to such a degree, Obama had received well-nigh more media attention than McCain, according to Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s Campaign Coverage Index.

Obama’s centrality has created some unsuitable dynamic. The chiefly serious influences on the campaign are President Bush’s unpopularity and the collapse of public sympathy for the Republican Party, interpretation that a majority is inclined to vote for the Democratic nominee unless he is rendered unacceptable.

But through Bush fading into the background, McCain has been running a campaign that is more about Obama than about himself. In recent weeks, McCain’s advertising tossed one charge after another at the man painted serially as “the biggest honor in the world,” “Dr. No,” and “The One.” The McCain attacks clearly helped build Obama fatigue.

Yet Obama absorbed McCain’s assaults and headed to his holiday in Hawaii holding an advantage of 4 to 6 points

Several suggested that McCain would pay a price during his anti-Obama campaign. Obama was criticized for not responding quickly enough to the McCain execrable. But the last two weeks bear solidified voters’ perceptions, regular in novel polls, that the Republican campaign is far more negative than Obama’s. This opens space between now and Election Day for Obama to respond forcefully to McCain in the absence of being accused of having initiated the attacks.

Moreover, a candidate who spends all his time defining his opponent has not worn out much delivery defining himself. McCain is living off the old capital created by his maverick image. This has fed voter perceptions that he is moderate and self-reliant, which in turn has allowed him to run other competitively by Obama than any of McCain’s primary opponents could have.

But this image could have being challenged. Despite McCain’s longevity in the public sight, a CBS News poll last week shape in a mould a third of voters still undecided in their opinion of McCain or saying they didn’t know enough to form one.

This leaves room towards Democrats to define McCain as a conventional preservative and a Bush supporter. And by absorbing so numerous Bush operatives into his campaign, some Republicans wonder if McCain may have limited his maneuvering chamber to make known his independence from an unpopular president.

In the spent two weeks, McCain has succeeded in narrowing the housekeeping discussion to energy and oil drilling, forcing Obama to respond defensively. However, it’s unlikely that “drill, drill, drill” is a slogan that can carry McCain through November. Obama needs to broaden the debate on the arrangement to health care, unemployment, falling incomes and the mortgage crisis.

There is a certain keenness in the McCain campaign’s effort to turn Obama’s strengths

“They’re trying to make lemonade out of a lemon,” said one Democratic strategist who is not working in quest of the Obama campaign. “It’s not a bad thing to cook, but it’s a sign of weakness.”

Thus the effort to turn Obama into the incumbent. McCain loses if the election becomes a referendum on Bush. He is running behind on most issues. And he has yet to generate the commitment among his own supporters that Obama has inspired in his camp.

The one contest McCain can earn is an election about Obama. Paradoxically, Obama’s imperative at his convention later this month is to reassure voters about who he is, space of time also affecting the spotlight off himself.

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