Kurt Nicklas
2008-09-29 21:42:20 UTC
William Kristol: How McCain wins
By William Kristol Published: September 29, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/29/opinion/edkristol.php
John McCain is on course to lose the presidential election to Barack
Obama. Can he turn it around, and surge to victory?
He has a chance. But only if he overrules those of his aides who are
trapped by conventional wisdom, huddled in a defensive crouch and
overcome by ideological timidity.
The conventional wisdom is that it was a mistake for McCain to come
back to Washington last week to engage in the attempt to craft the
financial rescue legislation, and that McCain has to move on to a new
topic as quickly as possible. As one McCain adviser told The
Washington Post, "you've got to get it [the financial crisis] over
with and start having a normal campaign." Wrong.
McCain's impetuous decision to go to Washington last week was right.
The agreement announced early Sunday morning is better than Treasury
secretary Henry Paulson's original proposal, and better than the deal
the Democrats claimed was close on Thursday. Assuming the legislation
passes soon, and assuming it reassures financial markets, McCain will
be able to take some credit.
But the goal shouldn't be to return to "a normal campaign." For these
aren't normal times.
Today in Opinion
Don't blame the New Deal for today's financial crisisReviving the
troubled deal on North Korea's nukesThe first debateWe Americans face
a real financial crisis. Usually the candidate of the incumbent's
party minimizes the severity of the nation's problems. McCain should
break the mold and acknowledge, even emphasize the crisis. He can
explain that dealing with it requires candor and leadership of the
sort he's shown in his career. McCain can tell voters we're almost
certainly in a recession, and things will likely get worse before they
get better.
And McCain can note that the financial crisis isn't going to be solved
by any one piece of legislation. There are serious economists, for
example, who think we could be on the verge of a huge bank run.
Congress may have to act to authorize the FDIC to provide far greater
deposit insurance, and the secretary of the Treasury to protect money
market funds. McCain can call for Congress to stand ready to pass such
legislation. He can say more generally that in the tough times ahead,
we'll need a tough president willing to make tough decisions.
With respect to his campaign, McCain needs to liberate his running
mate from the former Bush aides brought in to handle her - aides who
seem to have succeeded in importing to the Palin campaign the
trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House. McCain picked
Sarah Palin in part because she's a talented politician and
communicator. He needs to free her to use her political talents and to
communicate in her own voice.
I'm told McCain recently expressed unhappiness with his staff's
handling of Palin. On Sunday he dispatched his top aides Steve Schmidt
and Rick Davis to join Palin in Philadelphia. They're supposed to
liberate Palin to go on the offensive as a combative conservative in
the vice-presidential debate on Thursday.
That debate is important. McCain took a risk in choosing Palin. If she
does poorly, it will reflect badly on his judgment. If she does well,
it will be a shot in the arm for his campaign.
In the debate, Palin has to dispatch quickly any queries about
herself, and confidently assert that of course she's qualified to be
vice president. She should spend her time making the case for McCain
and, more important, the case against Obama. As one shrewd McCain
supporter told me, "Every minute she spends not telling the American
people something that makes them less well disposed to Obama is a
minute wasted."
The core case against Obama is pretty simple: He's too liberal. A few
months ago I asked one of McCain's aides what aspect of Obama's
liberalism they thought they could most effectively exploit. He looked
at me as if I were a simpleton, and patiently explained that talking
about "conservatism" and "liberalism" was so old-fashioned.
Maybe. But the fact is the only Democrats to win the presidency in the
past 40 years - Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton - distanced themselves
from liberal orthodoxy. Obama is, by contrast, a garden-variety
liberal. He also has radical associates in his past.
The most famous of these is the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and I wonder
if Obama may have inadvertently set the stage for the McCain team to
reintroduce him to the American public. On Saturday, Obama criticized
McCain for never using in the debate Friday night the words "middle
class." The Obama campaign even released an advertisement trumpeting
McCain's omission.
The McCain campaign might consider responding by calling attention to
Chapter 14 of Obama's eloquent memoir, "Dreams From My Father." There
Obama quotes from the brochure of Wright's church - a passage
entitled, "A Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness."
So when Biden goes on about the middle class on Thursday, Palin might
ask Biden when Obama flip-flopped on Middleclassness.
By William Kristol Published: September 29, 2008
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/29/opinion/edkristol.php
John McCain is on course to lose the presidential election to Barack
Obama. Can he turn it around, and surge to victory?
He has a chance. But only if he overrules those of his aides who are
trapped by conventional wisdom, huddled in a defensive crouch and
overcome by ideological timidity.
The conventional wisdom is that it was a mistake for McCain to come
back to Washington last week to engage in the attempt to craft the
financial rescue legislation, and that McCain has to move on to a new
topic as quickly as possible. As one McCain adviser told The
Washington Post, "you've got to get it [the financial crisis] over
with and start having a normal campaign." Wrong.
McCain's impetuous decision to go to Washington last week was right.
The agreement announced early Sunday morning is better than Treasury
secretary Henry Paulson's original proposal, and better than the deal
the Democrats claimed was close on Thursday. Assuming the legislation
passes soon, and assuming it reassures financial markets, McCain will
be able to take some credit.
But the goal shouldn't be to return to "a normal campaign." For these
aren't normal times.
Today in Opinion
Don't blame the New Deal for today's financial crisisReviving the
troubled deal on North Korea's nukesThe first debateWe Americans face
a real financial crisis. Usually the candidate of the incumbent's
party minimizes the severity of the nation's problems. McCain should
break the mold and acknowledge, even emphasize the crisis. He can
explain that dealing with it requires candor and leadership of the
sort he's shown in his career. McCain can tell voters we're almost
certainly in a recession, and things will likely get worse before they
get better.
And McCain can note that the financial crisis isn't going to be solved
by any one piece of legislation. There are serious economists, for
example, who think we could be on the verge of a huge bank run.
Congress may have to act to authorize the FDIC to provide far greater
deposit insurance, and the secretary of the Treasury to protect money
market funds. McCain can call for Congress to stand ready to pass such
legislation. He can say more generally that in the tough times ahead,
we'll need a tough president willing to make tough decisions.
With respect to his campaign, McCain needs to liberate his running
mate from the former Bush aides brought in to handle her - aides who
seem to have succeeded in importing to the Palin campaign the
trademark defensive crouch of the Bush White House. McCain picked
Sarah Palin in part because she's a talented politician and
communicator. He needs to free her to use her political talents and to
communicate in her own voice.
I'm told McCain recently expressed unhappiness with his staff's
handling of Palin. On Sunday he dispatched his top aides Steve Schmidt
and Rick Davis to join Palin in Philadelphia. They're supposed to
liberate Palin to go on the offensive as a combative conservative in
the vice-presidential debate on Thursday.
That debate is important. McCain took a risk in choosing Palin. If she
does poorly, it will reflect badly on his judgment. If she does well,
it will be a shot in the arm for his campaign.
In the debate, Palin has to dispatch quickly any queries about
herself, and confidently assert that of course she's qualified to be
vice president. She should spend her time making the case for McCain
and, more important, the case against Obama. As one shrewd McCain
supporter told me, "Every minute she spends not telling the American
people something that makes them less well disposed to Obama is a
minute wasted."
The core case against Obama is pretty simple: He's too liberal. A few
months ago I asked one of McCain's aides what aspect of Obama's
liberalism they thought they could most effectively exploit. He looked
at me as if I were a simpleton, and patiently explained that talking
about "conservatism" and "liberalism" was so old-fashioned.
Maybe. But the fact is the only Democrats to win the presidency in the
past 40 years - Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton - distanced themselves
from liberal orthodoxy. Obama is, by contrast, a garden-variety
liberal. He also has radical associates in his past.
The most famous of these is the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and I wonder
if Obama may have inadvertently set the stage for the McCain team to
reintroduce him to the American public. On Saturday, Obama criticized
McCain for never using in the debate Friday night the words "middle
class." The Obama campaign even released an advertisement trumpeting
McCain's omission.
The McCain campaign might consider responding by calling attention to
Chapter 14 of Obama's eloquent memoir, "Dreams From My Father." There
Obama quotes from the brochure of Wright's church - a passage
entitled, "A Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness."
So when Biden goes on about the middle class on Thursday, Palin might
ask Biden when Obama flip-flopped on Middleclassness.