From this morning's Playbook, under the heading "A PRESCRIPTION FOR McCAIN, from one of the smartest Bushies," emphasis added:

I personally would make a lot of ‘accidental’ straight talk on the plane with reporters. Oh no. McCain was chatting with the press, slipped up and called the Paulson proposal totally lacking on detail at best and nothing more than bailout of Wall Street fat cats at worse. Oh no. McCain said it is time for a recusal by Paulson given that he is conflicted five ways from Sunday. Let staff say that they will see about clarification. Let McCain come back and say that he won't apologize and in fact it is worse than what he said the first time. … And you also could guard against underwhelming debate performances, which McCain needs to be worried about given his ability in that regard and his history of performance. The tactics that got them to mid-September in a tie are not going to get them to 50 percent plus one in November.

They need … an eye toward driving out the range of contrast that makes McCain different from Obama (action-oriented rhetoric v. grand prose; accessible v. uppity; humble servant of country v. arrogant).