When Democrats take Denver by the thousands for the party's national convention next week, John McCain's campaign will be waiting close by to counterpunch.

McCain plans to keep a relatively light public schedule next week, but the McCain campaign will have a press shop with several staffers set up near the Pepsi Center, where the convention is being held.

There will be daily press conferences with key McCain supporters and advisers, tentatively including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

Plus the campaign intends to release a flurry of ads and Web videos throughout the week to compete with Democrats' message.

The Democratic convention is expected to be unusually aggressive, with Barack Obama's campaign poised to drive home the connection between McCain and the Bush administration. But when Obama and the dozens of convention floor speakers take swipes at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, McCain's network will be ready to hit back.

"You cannot in this day and age give up a month or a week," Democratic strategist Susan Estrich said.

That's the lesson she said she learned in 1988, when Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis spent August tending to his duties as governor of Massachusetts. Estrich was Dukakis' campaign manager.

"While the Republican convention went on, he was picking judges for western Massachusetts," Estrich recalled. "And the lesson was an election can be lost in August."

This year, McCain's campaign is not expected to rest.

Like Obama, the McCain campaign is burning through cash in the late summer. Obama raised more than $50 million in July and spent about $55 million. McCain raised more than $26 million and spent $32 million, mostly on advertising.

But McCain will continue to spend money at a breakneck pace this month, since by the time he accepts the GOP nomination in early September he'll have to relinquish his primary funds and accept about $84 million in public financing. That means his campaign wants to have close to zero dollars in its account when public money kicks in.

Meanwhile, Obama plans to continue to raise money privately, so the cash he raises needs to last through the November election.

McCain has been pushing the theme recently that Obama is an aloof celebrity, and next week will be no different. The campaign has already suggested to reporters that Obama only will reinforce that image when he accepts the Democratic nomination before more than 70,000 at Invesco Field, where the Denver Broncos play. The campaign released a new version of a Web video hitting that theme Thursday, geared toward the Denver convention.

Plus sources have told FOX News that McCain plans to announce his running mate Aug. 29, the day after the Democratic convention -- which would swiftly shift public attention away from the Democrats as the Republicans prepare for their convention the following week.

Estrich said that'll help McCain "steal the thunder." She expects McCain, nevertheless, to have a presence next week, to contrast images of Obama speaking to thousands of supporters with those of the Arizona senator speaking to common people about common problems.

In recent history, the successful strategy for a candidate during his rival party's convention has been to lay low but let others do the heavy lifting.

In 2000 and 2004, George W. Bush headed to his Texas ranch while the Democrats gathered for their convention.

But the Bush campaign was busy firing out rebuttals to Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

And once the Democratic convention ended in 2004, Bush quickly got back into the action to blunt any bounce in polling for Kerry. That's also around the time the Swift Boat Veterans ads began to challenge Kerry's military service and ultimately hamper his campaign.

"The candidate usually keeps a low profile during the opposition convention. Certainly Bush did in 2004," American University history professor Allan Lichtman said.

That said, he added: "I don't think you give them the spotlight entirely."

As for the 2008 GOP candidate, McCain is on the surface keeping things light. This weekend, he's spending some down time at his Sedona, Ariz., ranch, hiking and spending time with his family as well as holding meetings with advisers.

Next week he plans an appearance on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and a speech before the American Legion's conference in Phoenix on Tuesday. He'll also attend several finance events, but will return to Phoenix each night.

Even Thursday, with attention trained on Democratic preparations and Obama's imminent selection of a running mate, the McCain campaign still traded attack ads with the Obama campaign and sent out surrogates to make media appearances on its behalf.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told FOX News the tide is turning in McCain's direction, with several recent polls, including one from FOX News Thursday, showing McCain cutting into Obama's lead.

"The polls are tightening. You're seeing a sharper tone out of Barack Obama," Bounds said. "We think he recognizes that there's a shift in this race and that the Republican Party, independents and conservative Democrats have recognized that John McCain is the candidate and the leadership that we need in the next four years."

Both candidates are getting aggressive and going negative.

With McCain's surrogates in place to defend against attacks, Democrats expect the convention in Denver to take on a harsher tone than the 2004 convention.

And defense is what Democrats want the McCain campaign to play.

The Obama campaign plans to use the four-day spree to relentlessly portray McCain as a carbon copy of President Bush. Strategists believe Kerry's convention four years ago was too passive and gave Bush the space to create their own message without having to respond to Democratic criticisms.

Lichtman, a Maryland Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2006, said McCain needs to be careful not to over-respond, or he'll be seen as going too negative.

"He's taken Obama down a peg ... and he doesn't want to overplay that hand," Lichtman said. "It's always a tightrope walk."

FOX News' Dave Shott, Judson Berger, Mosheh Oinounou and Major Garrett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.