Reinventing John McCain
The senator is trying to jump-start a staggering campaign
But as he reintroduces himself to the public, McCain has yet to overcome the huge anchor around his neck represented by his support for the unpopular Iraq war. To turn things around, he tried to make a moral and practical case in that long-awaited speech at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington last week. "The judgment of history should be the approval we seek," he said, "not the temporary favor of the latest public opinion poll." He argued that victory would prevent Iraq from becoming more of a breeding ground for terrorists. McCain has for years criticized what he calls the mismanagement of the war and the administration's failure to send in enough troops. But now, he says, President Bush has finally come around to the McCain way of thinking, and this is no time to give up.
The Arizona senator also showed his partisan side. "Democrats, who deny our soldiers the means to prevent an American defeat, have chosen another road," he declared, referring to congressional efforts to impose a timetable on U.S. participation in the war. "It may appear to be the easier course of action, but it is a much more reckless one." Democrats countered that the conflict is going badly, that American troops are stuck in the middle of a civil war, and that McCain is deluded in his assessments of progress.
Beyond the posturing, the exchange showed how much difficulty McCain will have in courting Democrats and independents this time around. They loved him in the New Hampshire primary in 2000, powering his upset victory over George W. Bush. But Bush prevailed in the South Carolina primary with a series of harsh attacks on McCain and eventually won the nomination as the Establishment favorite. That's the role McCain is now trying to claim. But Democratic and independent voters have turned against both the war and McCain as one of its main defenders.
What many of McCain's critics are missing, however, is that his Iraq speech was aimed not at Democrats or independents but at Republican voters who will, after all, decide their party's nomination. McCain and his strategists know that 70 percent of GOP voters still support the war, and most back McCain's goal of victory. Among those voters, McCain's support is a plus that demonstrates his resolve and strength of character. At least that's what the McCain forces are hoping.
McCain has another agenda. In recent days, he has increased his sniping at the mainstream media for under-reporting good news from Iraq (a claim that seemed undercut last week when a suicide bomber killed eight people and wounded 30 in the heavily guarded Iraqi parliament building). This bash-the-media tactic has been used effectively for six years by the Bush White House to rally conservatives who believe the mainstream media are too liberal and biased against the GOP. Adopting that strategy represents a big risk for McCain, who might alienate the journalists who gave him such a boost in 2000. But it might also increase his support among conservatives who up to now have considered him too cozy with the press.
Will all this work? With the first caucuses and primaries nine months away, no one is close to locking up the Republican nomination, and plenty of time for a McCain surge. But he'd better get moving if he wants to be 2008's comeback kid.
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