McCain campaign manager Rick Davis today publicly ratified what had been a clear yet unspoken campaign strategy for McCain to downplay talk of the economic crisis and consistently bring up character issues to be used against Obama as the race breaks for the Dem nominee and McCain is stuck unsuccessfully proving his economic mettle to voters.

This strategy has become ever more apparent as McCain’s two new last-ditch mortgage/housing campaign proposal meet criticism from experts and shrugs from voters panicked about the broader economic meltdown. In fact, as global markets were tumbling worldwide, McCain and his campaign didn’t even  speak up about the crisis on Wall Street that is gutting the pensions and retirement portfolios of millions upon millions of Americans - and voters.

Davis was forced to defend this “oversight” today on a conference call with the media, chastising the press for thinking that their campaign is “a CNBC news show” and said there is no need for McCain to talk about the crisis in the markets “on a daily basis.” Like panicked Americans aren’t dealing with it on a daily basis…

“There’s very little a candidate for president can say and very little the president can say about what’s happening in the stock markets except hope that they correct themselves,” Davis said, adding that McCain’s mortgage plan could be an “elixir” for the financial crisis.

“I can’t imagine a situation where on a daily basis the campaign would put out a statement about what the market was doing,” he said. “It doesn’t meant that we don’t care and aren’t trying to do something about it.”

The campaign, he said, shouldn’t become a “CNBC news show on the stock market.”

This is a campaign that has become fatally tone deaf just when they need to be listening to voters the most. They don’t yet have the skill of a Bush team to literally move voters to what they want them to care about in a campaign.