I've been pretty tough on John McCain lately for his scattershot, lackluster campaign. It's had no compelling or consistent theme, and McCain has let Obama and other Democrats get away with outright lies about the cause of our current financial turmoil, in part because McCain-Palin has stupidly played a populist theme of "Wall Street greed" rather than the proper balance of "Democrat corruption of Fannie Mae" and "personal responsibility".

In any case, "Joe the Plumber" seems finally to have gotten the gears unstuck in the heads of McCain and his handlers. Joe Wurzelbacher pointed out what many of us have been saying for months: Barack Obama is a socialist who will raise taxes, impede free trade, and destroy our economy.

In campaign stops this weekend, McCain has used the energy of Joe the Plumber and Obama's own words ("spread the wealth around") to finally get to the most important theme of the election: Democrats are dangerous for the economy, and this Democrat more than most.

Again, it goes to the self-destruction of the GOP brand that Democrats are more trusted than Republicans on economic issues, but I believe that trust is shallow and fragile...and will soon be broken whether or not Obama wins, as he remains likely to do.

But if there's anything that could give McCain a chance to win, it's to keep focusing on the far-left anti-American economic views of Barack Obama. Obama's words handed McCain an automatic weapon which McCain needs to keep firing.

Even if it isn't enough for McCain to win, it might be enough to save a few GOP candidates for the House and Senate who are running on platforms of fiscal responsibility.

Republicans need to keep the vision of Joe the Plumber in everything they do for the next 4 years. They need to get back to being the party of Reagan, to supporting limited government, liberty, low taxes, and controlling the growth and intrusiveness of government into our lives. Only by doing that can they recapture the trust of the American people on economic issues...which are, most of the time, the most important issues we face.

As Robert Novak put it, "God put the Republican Party on earth to cut taxes. If they don't do that, they have no useful function."

At some point, even someone as dense as John McCain must come to realize that's true...and that the average American believes it.

McCain should, as I said in my note yesterday, beat Obama over the head with Joe the Plumber every day until the election. Talk about Obama's economy-destroying tax plan and health care plan and antagonism to free trade. Stop wasting time with "energy independence", especially as an answer to a question which has nothing to do with energy. Oil prices are half of what they were 6 months ago and energy is not at the front of people's minds now. It's all about the economy and jobs. The sooner McCain decides he must stick to that theme the better chance the Republican Party has of keeping Democrats from 60 seats in the Senate...an outcome I care far more about than whether McCain himself wins or not.

Obama sees the current situation as a chance to be the second coming of FDR. FDR's "New Deal" made our Depression deeper and longer than it otherwise would have been and was our first serious experimentation with socialism. It took two generations just to get partially over the New Deal, though we're still left with the disastrous welfare state mentality FDR brought to us. Obama could, especially with 60 votes in the Senate, bring us a repeat of the New Deal disaster.

I don't think much of John McCain and he's run a terrible campaign for all but a few weeks since his nomination was secured in the primaries. But if he can get it through his thick head that The Plumber Effect is the answer, we may yet survive the next four years.