From the ChiTrib ...

Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist, said McCain sometimes appears frustrated and angry when he talks about Obama, especially when complaining that the press does not treat him fairly. "John needs to be the deliberate, experienced veteran and not the grumpy old man," Rollins said. "If he's the grumpy old man, angry that the media is not in love with him anymore because they're in love with Barack Obama, that's not going to play well with the public."

I guess it falls to someone like Ed Rollins to cut to the quick of this. As a number of articles have reported over the last few days, there's a palpable sense of contempt for Obama within McCain campaign -- one that positively drips out of this new run of commercials. Not that we expect presidential campaigns to like each other; the intensity and stakes make that almost impossible. But in his affect and words, the message from McCain is more like, "Why do I even have to run against this guy?" That anger and frustration that someone like Obama might be overshadowing him is his achilles heel in this campaign.

"McCain for President: Because You Know He Should Be"