Can McCain Separate Himself From Bush?

04.09.2008

While Republicans may have consolidated their base and staunched the bleeding over Sarah Palin's pick, their most important task still remains: John McCain needs to go into a room of ten thousand screaming Republicans and distance himself from George W. Bush.

The Obama campaign has honed its line of attack against John McCain--he has voted with George Bush 90% of the time and his election would represent a third Bush term. To its credit Team Obama repeats this like a mantra.

If this criticism sticks it will be devastating to McCain. Voters have had it with George Bush and will reject McCain if they believe that he will continue the failed policies of the last eight years.

McCain needs to refute this charge tonight by making his differences with GOP orthodoxy clear to the American people. This will not be easy. First, the crowd of GOP loyalists doesn't want to hear it. These are Bush partisans who believe that their man has been a good president, and many remain deeply suspicious of McCain. Will McCain challenge his base?

Secondly, McCain's case on the merits is weak. During the Bush Presidency, McCain has moved steadily rightward, repudiating his own positions on issues like taxes and abortion. And he wears his support for the war in Iraq--a war the public associates with Bush--like an albatross around his neck.

McCain has other tasks as well--he will want to tell his own life story and detail what he would do programmatically in the White House--but his most important task will be the hardest.

--Howard Wolfson

Posted: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:45 AM with 4 comment(s)

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The Plank said:

From the Plank: Sarah Palin's Speech Will Not Win Over All Evangelicals by Alan Wolfe Can McCain

September 4, 2008 10:39 AM

woland said:

How the hell can McCain all of a sudden separate himself from Bush? None of the speakers so far have in any way suggested or set the groundwork for what McCain will do differently than Bush so for McCain to now spout a different approach would be very jarring. He would basically have to repudiate and reprimand the GOP audience, saying something along the lines of well, you guys say you want a maverick so here goes....

What I think you are missing Wolfson is that McCain's strategy is to run a reform "run the bums out of Washington D.C." campaign. McCain will talk about a do nothing Congress, corruption, and generalized entrenched interest groups and say that he is the one to clean things up. The problem with this strategy as I see it is that I think the American People know that the problem right now in Washington DC is not really corruption and all that jazz but the problem are the polices of George Bush and Republican ideology. The bums that need to be thrown out are the Republicans themselves!!! That is what Obama was tyring to lay out iin his acceptance speech. The only speaker last night to really tackle this issue head on was Romney when he was attacking liberalism.

The Republicans know that Obama is attacking their policies and ideology and that the American public is strongly leaning towards liberal policies so they have decided to run a smoke and mirrors campaign. Confuse the public into thinking that corruption and politican impasse is the problem and then divide and conquer with an us vs. them reverse snobbery meme (heartland vs. big city elite). They are hoping that the public will not notice that all that will change after the election if Republicans get their way is the replacement of faces and not policies. McCain's campaign manager all but admitted this when he stated that this election will not be decided on issues but character.

So no, Wolfson. McCain will not separate himself at all from Bush in his speech. It will be up to the American people to see though the illusion.

September 4, 2008 10:55 AM

michael said:

I hope you're correct Howard but the RNC has chosen to ride the momentum that isn't looking back at Bush and will feed upon the fear of Obama.

Who came up with that brilliant strategy?

Your team fired up that distraction and the only reason it failed is because Penn (or you or Harry or...) underestimated the number of smart Democrats.

Make no mistake, Hillaryland softened up the battlefield for a year and she may not have been preaching to her choir but it served the purpose of McCain better than anything he did to prepare for the general.

From March though late Summer when Johnny appeared to be doing nothing?

He was!

Nothing McCain could do would compare to the fire Hillary was laying down and the hard working white hard workers who really worked hard were listening (even though they were waiting for the call from McCain, not the Clintons).

The RNC was counting on a head start with more Bush fans, fewer critical thinkers and they only need to keep the mystery girl form central in hiding for two months.

Not only will Palin read the script from Hillary, she'll have a more receptive audience and benefit from its now familiar ring.

Remember, you guys didn't run against Bush until last week. Your product was experience, you painted Obama and change as a bad thing and skipped over the past seven years to reach into the 90's.

I agree that McCain must define himself and Palin...but someone (no names) condoned trashing Barack as the road to the WH. Hillaryland defined Johnny for a year, as better than Barack. The far right ate that up.

John and Sarah are the 2nd and 3rd members of a trio singing a well known tune. Ignoring Bush and attacking Obama became a hit, coast to coast but it never got to #1. That song was hit in the Spring but not enough people were buying it. But the RNC knew the problem wasn't with the song and they had a market that would gobble it up.

I hope Team Clinton didn't so so well for so long that they fucked up the country.

September 4, 2008 10:57 AM

dbhuff said:

This is why the 'throw the bums out' speech was important, it even includes Bush subtly. I agree that HRC has laid the groundwork for this, and that Ms Palin is a much fresher face to deliver the message. And that adds to the change mantra, change is in the air.

McCain was hoping for a twofer, get HRC voters and shore up the base. Last night, Palin went all in for the base, but most HRC voters (operation Chaos aside) are not of that vein. Effectively however, if last night is the only information a HRC voter has, they didn't see the strident right wing abortion, education, and sex views that might have turned them off.

September 4, 2008 11:16 AM