John McCain is trying to run two campaigns at once.   

And for good reason. 

On the one hand he has no choice but to respond to the economic crisis gripping the world.   Since the bailout was signed into law a week ago, the market has not stablized but tanked.  The Dow is down over another 500 points as of 2:30.  

So McCain would appear out of touch not to discuss the economy, the dominant news of the moment, and offer some form of a proposal to right the ship.    To this end, he used his campaign appearance in Wisconsin earlier today to propose suspending the current rules that force seniors to cash in their market holdings upon hitting 70 1/2.  The law is right now, of course, forcing Americans of that age to take considerable losses.    The campaign is holding an afternoon conference call featuring policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin to discuss the proposal.

But every poll indicates that McCain is also unlikely to win a contest fought over the economy.  So with under a month until Election Day and some Americans already voting, McCain also wants to shift the campaign conversation onto better terrain.  Namely, Barack Obama’s character.   To this end, the TV ad they went up with today was focused on Bill Ayers not protecting the 401(k)’s of seniors.  And in addition, the campaign scheduled two other conference calls today: hitting Obama on Ayers and his ties to ACORN, the community group that is being accused of voter registration fraud.

McCain himself explained the juxtaposition yesterday when a voter implored him to hit Obama harder.

"Yes, I’ll do that," the nominee promised his rowdy Republicans.  "But I also, my friends, want to address the greatest financial challenge of our lifetime with a positive plan for action that Sen. Obama and I have.  We need to restore, hope and trust and confidence in America and have Americans know that our best days our ahead of us.   That’s the future and strength and beauty of America.  So we’ll do both."

It’s not an easy balance, but the political imperatives of the moment demand it.