On Wednesday’s, “Morning Joe,” a show hosted by Joe Scarborough, Senator John McCain’s senior strategist, Nicole Wallace, claimed that McCain’s campaign had lost the spin war.

“The truth is they play dirty politics … we certainly lost the spin war about his fighting a more negative campaign. The truth is that Barack Obama has spent more money on negative attack ads against John McCain than any politician, Democrat or Republican, in history.”

This is a very odd approach from the McCain campaign. After pursuing an extremely aggressive method of bashing Obama in the media, it seems strange for the same campaign that called Obama a liar in political ads would now take the high road. Each campaign has thrown shots at each other throughout the course of this election. Barack Obama has called Senator McCain, “out of touch,” and stated that he hadn’t changed in the last 26 years. At McCain/Palin rallies, introductory speakers have referred to Senator Obama as, “Barack Hussein Obama,” as has been widely reported, and the moniker seems to be sticking. McCain’s campaign stating that Obama’s played an unfair game may be an uphill battle with both Democrats and Republicans. At a recent rally in Minnesota, McCain supporters angrily booed when Senator McCain defended the intentions of Senator Obama. You can be sure that those supporters won’t anticipate basing their vote on a sympathy card.

Wallace, later in the show, claimed sexism by the media towards Sarah Palin.

“There is an acceptance of the gender bashing that’s happened with Sarah Palin,” Wallace said. “It’s an atrocity. Win or lose, we’ll spend a long time examining the atrocities that have been carried out.”

This explanation may hold water with diehard Republicans, but it’s pretty clear to most voters that Palin hasn’t endured nearly the degree of atrocities that Senator Obama has. While Palin has faced the media’s wrath for her concerning interview with Katie Couric, and her lies regarding the Bridge to Nowhere controversy, she hasn’t been accused of having terrorist connections, or not highly regarding America - “Our opponent though, is someone who sees America it seems as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country,” Palin said about Obama on the 4th of October. It seems as though McCain’s campaign is more willing to cry foul at the media for Palin’s portrayal, rather than defend Sarah Palin for the way she appears in the media.

The explanation for the recent change of tone from McCain’s campaign must be due in part to the new New York Times/CBS News poll, which finds that 53% of voters would vote for Senator Obama and 39% of voters would vote for Senator McCain. With under a month left in the campaign, McCain had better hope that his campaign’s new underdog approach will help bring undecided voters over to his side. Additionally, any talks of a fierce, combative McCain at tonight’s debate would fall by the wayside if McCain sticks with an underdog plan. Either way, claiming that Obama is, “palling around with terrorists,” certainly hasn’t gotten the job done.