There I was, standing in the press risers at Xcel Center, praying for the end of John McCain's stilted acceptance speech. An address that ate up just six printed pages but felt like an eternity. Yet something happened in the last 50 seconds. A switch seemed to flip, and the droning oratory gave way to a fiery call to "stand up and fight!" The delegates erupted in a roar of approval that sustained McCain until the end.

It was an effective message then, and it's wise for the McCain camp to resurrect it now.

The raw campaigning at McCain-Palin rallies last week unleashed an anger and ugliness that severely damaged McCain's reputation. The "fight" mantra he reprised this Monday is a much more focused and effective way to tap into the anger -- not just in the Republican Party but also in the rest of the country -- about the war, the economy and the uncertain future facing American families.

This change in tactic improves McCain's chances of moving from the senate to the White House. And yes, contrary to Marie's thinking, he still has a chance. Here's why.

1.) If McCain can maintain message discipline (a tall order), he can raise doubts about the senator from Illinois without jumping into the gutter to do it. And that could help McCain close the yawning gap in the national and battleground state polls.

2.) The peculiarities of each candidate's campaign could still come into play. McCain has a history of coming back from the political dead. He was thought to be electoral road kill when he canned his senior campaign staff last year and started clawing his way to the nomination from scratch. Now look at him. Obama, meanwhile, has a history of not being able to persuade working-class white voters to vote for him. While he won the nomination over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, he did lose nine of the last 14 primary contests to her and wasn't able to pull any of the critical electoral vote states into his column. Not Pennsylvania. Not Ohio.

3.) Three weeks (20 days to be exact) are an eternity in politics. Look at how the dynamics of the campaign have changed over the previous month. Remember my post about my two New York friends who were despairing at Obama's prospects because McCain and Palin were leading in the polls? One month later, McCain is so far behind in the polls that some folks are already writing his political obituary, including my two friends in New York.

Will any of this be enough to overcome the tidal wave Obama seems to be riding? We'll find out soon enough. But this much is certain: McCain's path to the Oval Office is getting narrower by the day.