McCain manager's admissions are mind boggling

According to the Washington Post today, John McCain's campaign manager made some interesting comments in an interview, including:

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

While I agree that voters often vote based on personalities, I would hope that the managers of the presidential campaigns would make an attempt at making the race about issues ... and not a popularity contest.

The WaPo also had this little ditty about Sarah Palin's VP acceptance speech:

As for the speech itself, Davis said a generic, "masculine" speech was being prepared before the pick was made and, now that Palin is the choice, she is adapting the speech to her own needs and personality.

So ... um ... the speech was written before they knew who the veep would be? Wouldn't the VP candidate be expected to write their own speech?

How bizarre.