The New McCain Message Machine?

Is it a change in strategy? Or just a sign that there are some kinks in the system to be worked out? The candidate's just-completed trip to Pennsylvania--a more-than-crucial state in this fall's electoral math--included almost no interaction with Pennsylvanians. McCain took a tour of a coal facility, which was not open to the public, and made an unannounced stop at a local restaurant, where he encountered a family from ... Arizona. What give-and-take there was with the national media was done only with a pool--much to the consternation of everyone else.

And some in the local media weren't particularly happy either. Jon Delano, the money and politics editor of KDKA, the top-rated (he tells me) CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, did score an exclusive interview with the candidate--as did a number of other local reporters. But his crew was not allowed in to record the candidate's tour of CONSOL Energy. "This is an event that is tailor-made for local media," he told me. "My cameraman is locked in the car. He was told he couldn't come in."

The McCain campaign had allowed in a local media pool, but Delano said that the various local outlets use different technology, which makes sharing the footage difficult. The night before, the day's pool feed didn't arrive at his station until after the early-evening news. McCain staffers had attempted to bar Delano and his crew from recording McCain's stop at Primanti Brothers, a local institution famed for its meat-and-french-fry sandwiches. Delano got in only when the candidate himself intervened--and as a result, was able to do a feature on McCain's visit to Primanti's on the early newscast.

"I get the feeling Senator McCain understands," Delano told me. "Pennsylvania is a very retail-intensive state for campaigning and the best access to as many people as possible is the local media."

We're now in Portsmouth, Ohio, where McCain is holding a town hall on the economy and there are some "straight talk" sessions scheduled with both local and national reporters aboard McCain's bus.