With everything going for war hero John McCain, why can't he close the deal with the American electorate?

Today's Gallup Tracking Poll has Barack Obama opening up a statsistically insignificant lead, 46-43, over McCain, after weeks of virtual deadlock. Other polls have McCain failing or tied, as well — hardly the performance one would expect from a war hero who knows how to win wars.

The Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot represents numerous Republican operatives and mainstream media pundits whose concern trolling wonders aloud, "Why So Slack, Barack?" In fact, Gigot is just the latest conservative commentator to ignore McCain's lackluster appeal by failing to ask the more embarrassing question "Why So Zero, Hero? "

If we acknowledge that McCain has the advantage in  military service, compelling torture story, years in the U.S. Senate and that special McCain brand of maverickality, why is he only tied, at best, with Obama?

McCain clinched the Republican Party's nomination at least a month before Obama became his party's presumptive, if more battered, nominee. That should have given McCain a huge edge in time, fundraising and message. Did he squander it all, as if it were merely post-9/11 global goodwill?

McCain is, pardon the news flash, white. Race played into the Democratic nomination, as exit polls documented. How much more is race a factor when GOP voters are factored into the mix? All else being equal, McCain should be a slam dunk against the first non-white presidential candidate. Why isn't he?

And who's been running more negative ads, both in dollars spent and spots aired? Yep, McCain. So what's the deal? He can't whip a pesky celebrity?

There's something else at play here, an Achilles heel that must be crippling McCain and keeping his poll numbers from surging.

If his race, military service, torture tales, time as nominee, political longevity, and maverickissitude isn't enough to let McCain close the deal, what is that burden that so effectively hampers him?

Hmmmm. What could it be?