The General Idea
- 05.07.2008 - 11:57 AMWe have known what Barack Obama’s message is for a year: change. Change Washington’s political culture, change the way we engage our enemies, change the tax structure, and change reliance on a largely private health care insurance system. His countermessage: John McCain is against change and wants more of George W. Bush’s policies.
So what is McCain supposed to do about this? For starters, he really does need an over-arching theme. Victory in Iraq and preserving tax cuts are not a theme: they’re policy positions. George W. Bush had a theme–compassionate conservatism–which turned out to be not much of either, but it was a theme. And biography, no matter how compelling, is also not a theme. Running against an extreme liberal with a grab bag of wacky associates and no record of accomplishment could be an asset. But, again, it’s not a theme.
When McCain comes up with a theme, one he can explain in a sentence (a few words would be better), we will know that he has an actual strategy to beat Barack Obama. In the end, voters have to vote for something: Something (however flaky) will beat nothing every time.
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May 7th, 2008 at 12:17 PM
How about “pride?” Senator McCain could run on a pride ticket and contrast it with Senator Obama’s very vocal shame ticket.
Or “unity.” That’s a good one, especially considering his “across the aisle” Voting record. Obama cant make an honest claim to be a unifier.
“Fidelity.” “Strength.” “Always ready.” “Forward.” There’s no shortage of pithy slogans.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:47 PM
JPod’s and Jennifer’s posts today say it all, as far as I’m concerned. But, to accept Jennifer’s
challenge on a theme on a theme, here’s my offer:
McCain: he’s done the job and will do it again.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Actions, not slogans.
May 7th, 2008 at 1:19 PM
J. Lichty: Don’t discount slogans. You need actions and slogans, preferably that are complimentary to each other. Look how far Obama has gotten with “change”.
May 7th, 2008 at 1:31 PM
How about: “Courage we can count on” ? Or, “McCain: Courageous Leadership ” ?
May 7th, 2008 at 2:01 PM
The one word is “honor.” With John McCain, it’s not just a word — it’s a way of life.
Always remember, this man stood tall in hell; this election is as nothing compared to what he’s been through.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Jennifer is repeating herself, so I will also.
The predominant mood nowadays, a mood the Left encourages and capitalizes on, is that the US has gone bad, is in decline, has seen its best days, must make its peace with a world that it has wronged and disappointed. Thus Hillary and Obama, a woman and a black, softness and withdrawal, are viewed as ways to conciliate the world and again warm it to the US.
A McCain campaign needs to respond from the opposite direction. The Left is accepting the posture of the old, the feeble, the frightened and defeated.
The US is none of that. She is not near her end, not near the beginning of her end. She has barely begun. She has only just overcome the USSR. She is not about to be pulled down by the Old World that first sought to appease Nazis and then spend half a century yelling, Yankee Go Home and Better Red than Dead. The US did not give in to that and it won’t give in to anti-Americanism nowadays. It did not give in to German and Japanese fascism and it won’t give in to Islamist fascism that despises democracy, freedom of speech and religion and gender equality. The Democrats want to make peace with all that. McCain intends to defeat it.
The world loved America the winner. The more she accepts the pose of a loser the more she will be reviled.
McCain is not the oldest but the youngest of the candidates, because for him America is just starting, she has not yet begun to fulfill her potential, he knows, for America the best is yet to come.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:20 PM
Obama’s message in the general election will be a version of: No More Shame, No to McCain, No to - More of the Same.
An apt riposte would be, McCain: Change to What Made America Great.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:32 PM
The GOP prevailed in ‘04 in large part because of a group of Vietnam vets who were witness to John Kerry’s testimony about their service. If it wants to prevail in ‘08, it should find a small group of well-spoken Iraqis that can express their gratitude to America for the sacrifices we have made for their freedom. This is something the American public needs to hear, and needs to hear now.
Those who now pride themselves on resisting the Iraq War “from the beginning” must be made to face the responsibility for opposing the freedom of over twenty million people.
There’s no sense winning this war while losing the argument about the war.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:41 PM
As for Senator McCain himself, there’s something about him that needs to be communicated. It’s more than simply, “Him POW. Him brave.” We’re talking about a man who, for five years, had America not as a huge nation surrounding him - the alienated state the Democrats draw upon - but as an *idea*, an ember existing entirely within him. Surely that fact can be teased out, its implications employed.