Polls, articles, blogs; they all have the same winner in mind and that is Barack Obama. While he is soaring with his fundraising advantage and all-rounded campaigning in battleground states, McCain is struggling with losses in polls and the public blame on the Republicans for the economic crisis.

According to an article in Time magazine, McCain is facing hard times. With only three weeks left until the election, McCain has a lot riding on his shoulders to make up for his losses so far. People lost trust in the Republicans and they lost trust in McCain and tonight may be one of his last chances to make up for it. According to the article, if McCain wants to change things around, he has to produce a major memorable moment at the expense of Obama, by forcing an error/exposing a flaw or unattractive trait/revealing an inconsistency or weakness. This moment should be of such an impact that the media will play it over and over again for it to have a true impact on the public.

However, after the debates we’ve witnessed up to today, McCain has never been able to get Obama to lose his calm. As the article says, at some times it even seemes as if “McCain is arguing with himself”. Obama, however, is ever so confident and well prepared and it leaves me wondering if tonight is going to be the night McCain is finally going to make him lose his cool. The article suggests that tonight McCain should go against his advisers and against his former strategies and instead should say what he truly believes about his won proposals, about Obama’s qualifications and about the challenges America faces, all without an over practiced strategy. McCain needs to step away from his negative campaign and become ‘human’ again, because this is the way, probably the only way left, for him to gain votes back.

The debate tonight can make or break McCain, because if nothing is to change after the debate, the polls, the articles, the blogs will overrule every attempt that McCain will make to gain votes. Obama’s victory will have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.