Strategists: McCain Can Still Win the Debate Over Iraq
Despite Obama's trip dominating coverage, strategists think McCain can take control of the argument.
John McCain woke up this week to front-page photographs of Barack Obama helicoptoring over Baghdad with American commander Gen. David Petraeus. To reports of the Iraqi prime minister's agreement with Obama's basic timetable to bring U.S. troops home. And to the Bush administration's talk about a "horizon" for the American military presence in Iraq.
McCain's campaign has struggled mightily to counteract his Democratic opponent's much-ballyhooed trip to the Middle East and Europe. And it has grappled with how McCain, who has opposed timetables and whose premier issue has been foreign policy, keeps the upper hand with voters when the ground has shifted. The campaign at times seemed to be flailing, testing messages that could resonate. It borrowed a page from Obama's Democratic primary rival Hillary Clinton and attacked the media for its "swoon" over Obama. It mocked the Democrat's planned presidential-style meetings with European allies later this week. And McCain himself accused Obama of being willing to "lose a war in order to win a campaign."
Though a number of conservative strategists diverged when asked how they'd advise McCain to handle Obama's news-dominating trip, there was clear agreement on at least one issue: Don't fight the pictures.
"Things are so high profile, and things are going so well for Obama," says John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute, "that in terms of this week, it would be hard to make much of a difference." Says Dave Winston, a GOP pollster: "Right now, rightly or wrongly, the focus is on the pictures, but McCain's got to eventually make it about content."
To grab control of the Iraq issue and prevent Obama from narrowing his trust deficit with voters on foreign policy, the strategists suggested several options. And, not surprisingly, given the McCain campaign's own difficulty figuring out how to go after Obama on his timetable and continued opposition to the 2007 troop surge in Iraq, some of the suggestions are contradictory.
1. Emphasize his support of the troop surge. McCain should continue to focus on his support for the surge, which flooded Iraq with 30,000 additional troops and helped stabilize the country. He should emphasize that Obama's proposed timeline is possible only because of the surge, says Winston. "He needs to say that you can attribute the situation in Iraq to McCain yelling at the White House for three solid years."
2. Don't emphasize the surge. By looking back, McCain could risk becoming too focused on an "I was right, you were wrong" message that won't strengthen his hand. "His strongest line is not to go back and make that argument," says Fortier, but to talk about Obama as a "smooth talker, not a straight talker." McCain's key argument, the strategist says, should be that he is somebody who can lead the larger war on terror.
3. Both should move on from the past. "The rhetoric is irrelevant," says Jim Carafano, a retired military officer and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Carafano's view is that President Bush "solved the [Iraq] problem before leaving office," and that both Obama and McCain need to "focus on their vision for the Middle East." Obama has begun doing that--he referred Tuesday to a "growing consensus" on troop withdrawal from Iraq. Says Carafano: "There's been silliness on both sides," with Obama denying the surge worked and McCain saying he doesn't want a timeline. Bottom line, Carafano says, is no matter who is elected, their Iraq policy will turn out about the same.
Can McCain still dominate foreign policy and the Iraq issue? Yes, the strategists say, though Obama has made strides this week in powerful photos, if not in rhetoric. And it's early. Both candidates have the potential to stumble before Election Day, and no one expects conditions on the ground in the Middle East to remain frozen in time.
Meanwhile, McCain this week will simply have to grit his teeth. "There's nothing he can do to change the story of the day," Fortier says. "But longer term--there is opportunity."
Wednesday afternoon McCain canceled an availability with the national press. And a short time later, his campaign announced a new appearance for the candidate Thursday in Ohio. It will be a town hall meeting with Lance Armstrong. The topic? Cancer. Both men are survivors.
Reader Comments
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE REPUBLICAN DELEGATES -continued
support and ability to raise huge sums of money that John McCain lacks. Ron Paul has a consistent voting record over the past 30 years that puts John McCain’s voting record to shame. Ron Paul doesn’t change his views to match his environment and unlike McCain, Ron Paul has a great deal of knowledge on both economics and foreign policy. Ron Paul can save our nation from economic disaster by reinstating the gold standard, shutting down the Federal Reserve and the IRS and ending 95 years of oppression against American workers with the illegal Income Tax.
But the most important reason for nominating Ron Paul is to have a leader that we and the rest of the world can be proud of; something that we have not had for a very long time. I sincerely hope that the Republican delegates at the national convention will look at these things and think about the consequences of their actions when they choose their nominee for President. The time is too short to allow a Socialist candidate like Barack Obama to win the presidency. John McCain is too set in his ways to change his whole persona now. The only chance that we have to stop Obama and the destruction of our economy is to choose Ron Paul as the Republican nominee for President.
Thank you and God Bless America!
Sincerely,
Bob Vondruska
A concerned citizen
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE REPUBLICAN DELEGATES
Dear Republican Delegates,
I am writing this letter as a concerned American citizen, with hope that we can prevent the damage that will ensue with John McCain as the Republican nominee for President. Contrary to popular belief, John McCain is NOT the official nominee for his party and will not be so until the delegates officially cast their votes for him at the Republican National Convention in September. It goes without saying that this is not the wish of most mainstream republicans and people who call themselves Conservatives.
Until then, it is not too late to avoid the mistake of nominating an unpopular and divisive candidate who will not only lose the general election in November, but will do it in the same manner as Bob Dole twelve years earlier. Bob Dole not only lost the election; he lost it by a wide margin to a popular incumbent named Bill Clinton. Even though Barack Obama is only the Democratic Party’s nominee for President, he is a hugely popular candidate (much like Clinton in 1992) and has close to $300 million dollars to spend for his election efforts.
Can John McCain raise that kind of money? No! Can John McCain excite the voters with any of his proposals? No! Can John McCain excite anyone about anything that he says today or has said in the past? No! Can John McCain become the next President of the United States? No, absolutely not! So why would the Republican delegates send a sacrificial lamb to the convention and waste their time and their vote on a present day Bob Dole? In reality, Bob Dole was much more of a Conservative than John McCain and look what happened to him.
The Conservative’s in the Republican Party are looking for a candidate and nominee who can bring together the people and qualities that once made the Republican Party what it was in the days of Thomas Jefferson; a party that had principles and adhered to the Constitution. Can John McCain save the Republican Party from the disease that has ravaged the very heart of the Conservative wing? No, he can’t and he won’t! First of all, John McCain is not even a real Conservative, but is really a Liberal in disguise! A simple search of his voting record during his years in Congress and in the Senate will confirm this and should be all the reason for the delegates to reject McCain at the nominating convention.
This is why it is imperative for the delegates to nominate Ron Paul as the Republican nominee for President. Not only is Ron Paul a strict constitutionalist, but he is the only Republican candidate who can win the presidency in a contest with Barack Obama. He was always the most likable candidate during the Republican debates and besides garnering the most applause, he won just about every preference poll conducted after each debate. To say that Ron Paul is not a popular candidate would not be accurate, although this was the picture painted by the mainstream media to question the viability of his candidacy.
Ron Paul has the dedicated
Obama's already won.
I hope Mccain doesn't break a hip trying to keep with Obama on the debate trail though!
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