In his last Saturday radio address before Election Day, John McCain leads with the economy and seems to acknowledge that his own camp needed help to finally make the case:

We’ve learned that Barack Obama’s economic plan for America to redistribute the wealth of America with higher taxes. It took a working man in Ohio to finally get him to explain his economic plan in plain language. Senator Obama wants to “spread the wealth around.” He thinks that your job is to earn wealth, and the government’s job is to spread it. I reject the ideology of redistributing wealth, and I always have. I believe that the only way to pull our economy out of this terrible time of worry and hardship is to spread opportunity. Low taxes reward effort and create jobs. We’re going to double the child deduction for working families. We will cut the capital gains tax. And we will cut business taxes to help create jobs, and keep American business in America.

But what is surprising is the amount of time spent on national security. He sums up:

With terrorists still plotting new strikes across the world, millions of innocent lives are still at stake, including American lives. Our enemies’ violent ambitions must still be prevented — by American vigilance, by diplomacy and cooperation with our partners, and by force of arms as a last resort. In his four years in the Senate, two of them spent running for president, Barack Obama has displayed some impressive qualities. But the question is whether this is a man who has what it takes to protect America from Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran, and other grave threats in the world. And he has given you no reason to answer in the affirmative.

At the same time, Democrats in Congress have already proposed to cut defense spending by 25 percent. Even with our troops engaged in two wars, and with a force in need of rebuilding, we’re getting a glimpse of what one-party rule would look like under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. Apparently it starts with lowering our defenses and raising our taxes.

(The McCain camp is also hitting the defense spending issue in radio ads in Virginia.)

It really has always been about this, albeit not expressed in the clearest terms and not with the focus always needed to penetrate the media thicket. McCain’s best case has always been that Obama is a risk — he may steer the economy too far Left and be insufficiently resolute in confronting international enemies. The campaign hasn’t been error-free, and the candidate isn’t always on message. But the fundamental questions remain. And voters, especially those fourteen percent “persuadables,” will have to think just how much “change” they can afford.

Campaigns tell us a lot about candidates. But the prize doesn’t go for “best disciplined campaign” or “the least internal drama.” For McCain that’s a good thing. It remains to be seen whether voters will see through all of that. If they do, the credit will go to Joe the Plumber who did what McCain’s own team — and the MSM — could not: make the case against Obama.