As Sun Tzu said, speed is often the essence of war. Short, quick movements are often the key to success. Even if they go in the wrong direction, they cannot go to far wrong if you quickly correct your course. One of the primary reasons I give Obama the advantage in the current presidential race is his methods are clearly superior, especially in the case of using speed. The disadvantage of speed is that hHe makes many more mistakes than McCain, but he also quickly corrects them. More importantly, a mistake isn;t really a mistake is your opponent is too slow to take advantage of it, as McCain often is. For example, in his move toward the center, Obama is currently running ads in all the swing states, touting his record on welfare reform. While Obama is actually quite vulnerable on welfare reform, he is betting, correctly I suspect, that McCain will be too slow in responding that Obama can safely establish himself as a reformer without worrying about McCain seeing and using the opening. Responding later doesn't help McCain because as time passes then people wonder why, if was true that Obama actually fought against welfare reform, McCain didn't say so immediately.