The problem of McCain running against Barack Obama is finally beginning to hit home for Republicans.

"I think we've got a world of problems," said one Republican strategist with extensive experience in presidential campaigns. He said this came home to him with a thud when he watched Obama and McCain give speeches last Tuesday, with the Democrat speaking before "20,000 screaming fans, while John McCain looked every bit of his 72 years" in a speech televised from New Orleans. This Republican cited the liberal blogger Atrios' description of McCain's speech with a green backdrop that made McCain "look like the cottage cheese in a lime Jell-O salad."

For McCain to stand a chance of winning, the operative contended, the campaign, the Republican National Committee, or an independent group will have to finance sustained negative ads developing a broad assault on Obama's credibility as a national leader at a time of terrorist threat. McCain, however, has gone out of his way to aggressively discourage such activity, the operative pointed out, which, he argued, may kill McCain's chances.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating, the Republicans are at a loss as to how to deal with Obama. They were the ones who pushed the idea of Hillary's inevitability the most because they knew she was their best chance of hanging onto the Presidency.

And their biggest potential nightmare? Well he is a young man named Barack Obama.