mccain does a cameron

This ad is not particularly interesting in itself, but the fact that McCain is running one about climate change is significant. The big issues in this election are likely to be the war and the economy. After that, it's healthcare and education; you have to go quite a long way down the list before you get to the environment. So why is McCain spending his money at this early stage on an ad about the weather?

The answer lies here. An extraordinary 81% of the population believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, and President Bush's approval ratings have hit an all-time low (again). McCain's tricky task in the next few months is to put daylight between himself and Bush, without pissing off the hardcore of Bush supporters in the GOP. The climate change issue, something McCain has a sincere interest in, offers a way of doing that.

In other words, McCain is (consciously or unconsciously) following the lead of David Cameron, the UK Conservative Party leader who made a big deal out of the environment in his first year as leader, not because it tops the list of vote-winning issues in the UK but because it offered a way to send powerful signals that he was a different type of Conservative leader

Talking loud on the environment helped to reposition Cameron and his party in those early days; now he focuses on the so-called bread-and-butter issues of the economy, education and so on. Expect to see the same from McCain.