Clinton strategy working for McCain

Sen. John McCain speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday in Orlando, Florida.

Accordingto CNN's average of several recent national surveys, Obama's lead is now 1 point over the Arizona senator, 45 percent to 44 percent.

The margin in the poll of polls, which consists of seven surveys, is down from three points a day earlier and and down from an eight-points in mid-July.

Russia's invasion of Georgia gave McCain an anvil to hammer away at Obama's inexperience, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said.

"The McCain campaign believes that some of Hillary Clinton's tactics, especially questioning whether Obama is ready to lead, can be a real winner," Schneider said.

Clinton nearly overtook Obama during the primary campaign after she started airing ads asking whom voters would rather have answering a 3 a.m. call to the White House.

"The McCain team has been very open that they went to school on the Hillary Clinton campaign, that they learned from that," said CNN contributor David Gergen, a former counselor to three presidents. 

"And, on this 3 a.m. ad, what's very striking, as some have pointed out over the last few days, is that Barack Obama was winning a steady streak of victories against Hillary Clinton," Gergen said.

"And then she ran that ad, and she really went on the attack on the experience question. And she won the bulk of the primaries thereafter in the closing months of the Democratic primaries and won 500,000 more votes than he did and almost took it away from him."

When Russian troops invaded Georgia two weeks ago, McCain vigorously denounced the action and warned of consequences. Obama's reaction was more measured, and potential voters noticed, Schneider said.

"Which candidate do voters believe is better qualified to deal with Russia? McCain by better than 2-1," Schneider said. "More experience in military matters and foreign affairs."

That argument may be even more effective for McCain than it was for Clinton, said political analyst Marc Halperin, a former Democratic strategist.

McCain is "going after more centrist voters, more swing voters, more conservative voters who will be a much bigger deal in the general election than they were in those primaries and caucuses," Halperin said. By at least one important measure, McCain has overtaken Obama. The Republican's current lead in key states would give him enough electoral votes to win the election, Gergen said.

McCain has taken other pages from the Clinton playbook, saying that Obama has great style but little substance.

"Not only did the Clinton campaign give McCain and his advisers a road map, but [they] actually started the McCains down that path," said Dan Schnur, who was McCain's communications director in the 2000 campaign.

"That's why you're hearing from Obama very specific policy-oriented proposals here," CNN's Suzanne Malveaux said. "There's not a lot of that kind of flash, if you will, from the earlier days."

But the recent downturn in the polls for Obama may not last. The Democratic White House hopeful is headed for a week of what is likely to be overwhelmingly positive coverage as he names his running mate and officially accepts his party's presidential nomination.

"The big question now is whether Obama can successfully regain control of the campaign agenda as we head into the Democratic convention," said Alan Silverleib, CNN senior political researcher.

Clinton did ultimately lose to Obama, after all. But she showed how to hurt him.

"What the Clinton campaign demonstrated is, when you bring [Obama] back down to earth, it's a better battle," Schnur said.