[ConservativeMan55]

But when it came up a week or so ago McCain should have immediately put out an ad before the day was up.

[Salamander]

People have the attention spans of goldfish, generally.
The closer to the Big Day that the heavy artillery is dragged out, the better.

McCain is a Celt at heart.

Remember the scene in Braveheart where Wallace had the line of pikesmen waiting for the cavalry charge that technically should have easily annihilated them, and kept saying “Hold!” “Hold!” “Hold!” and then, at the very last second when the cavalry could not recover or retreat, they raised their pikes and impaled the whole freaking army like so much shishkabob?

Great successful tactic, that.