The Republicans

The long road ahead

John McCain faces a variety of pitfalls

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Readers' comments



OK, I am going to try my hand as a political operative.I think McCain was doing pretty good in the campaign until the stupid decision by his campaign manager to put him in situations where he had to give long policy speeches. McCain looked uncomfortable and above all else old.He has to do what he did during the primary season. Lots and lots of townhall meetings, which he has been getting back to lately. When it comes to national media exposure, I suggest going on as many one-on-one interview shows as he can. No more long televised policy speeches!He must also try to paint himself as the underdog and make Obama almost seem like the establishment already.He should also focus on winning Florida, Virginia, and Ohio. The first two seem possible if not likely. The last seems close to impossible right now. There is talk right now of putting a measure on the ballot guaranteeing 7 sick days in Ohio. This will get the unions out in mass and will probably do for Obama what the anti-gay marriage proposal did for Bush in 2004.So, right now it seems very hard for McCain to win, but the same was true in the Republican primaries. Yet, he persevered and won those by sticking to his message. It is possible for him to do the same on the national scale.

Juan A. Hervada

gunboatD, You said:"do you want any of the following:- an updated air traffic control system- dependable bridges and roads- sea cargo to be checked for dangerous items- secure nuclear power plants- clean water to drink- clean air to breathe- fuel efficient cars- beef and tomatoes free of dangerous bacteria- a life free of govt supervision- etc etc?where do you think that stuff comes from? the govt!"The most magic thing you say is that citizens are sure to get "a life free of govt supervision" from the very government itself. It could never have come to my mind. Thank you.


@erowe1obviously, you havent been reading the news. in november of 07, he said on This Week with George Stephanopoulos he supported overturning roe v wade. google it.@tawpTawp's comments are hilarious because under bush, americans got:- more spending (mccain voted for all his budgets but one)- inept and corrupt govt spending on katrina and iraq (mccain never voted for oversight)- big brother govt (mccain supports bush's domestic spying program)- expanded govt (homeland security)- intervention overseas- higher gas prices (affected by bush's weak dollar policy and no push by federal govt to encourage less consumption)- a judiciary that defers to the executive (dont forget that the most non-states rights decision handed down by this so-called activist court was in gore v bush)- hyper partisanship- weak regulation of our financial markets that has allowed the current mortgage-based financial calamity.Your comments are also funny because polls show that americans overwhelmingly want: - health care- food safety- a social safety net (market-based systems dont guarantee anything except you pay fees to your broker)- our troops home from iraq- better relations with our neighbors- diplomacy-through-dialogue i dont want to believe that all conservatives are bad: andrew sullivan and ron paul are good examples. but the current mindset that has taken root in the most vocal "conservatives" is stupid beyond belief. Imright and tawp and others on here should just *think* about what you are writing before you post. You toss out scary words like "tax hike" and "responsible spending" but have no concept of how government spending works and how little pork there really you want any of the following:- an updated air traffic control system- dependable bridges and roads- sea cargo to be checked for dangerous items- secure nuclear power plants- clean water to drink- clean air to breathe- fuel efficient cars- beef and tomatoes free of dangerous bacteria- a life free of govt supervision- etc etc?where do you think that stuff comes from? the govt! and dont try "the free market can regulate itself" out here. the point of a slaughterhouse is not to make safe food, but to make money and to make money, you shave off inefficiencies and wring out profit to please stockholders.your belief system has been totally debunked by everything that has happened in the past 7 years. i know that saying this could only harden your views, but i feel a swift kick in the head just might work for you lot.more proof that bill buckley was the biggest intellectual fraud EVER.


A "variety of pitfalls" indeed...

...not the least of which is a media environment virtually unaware of - and unwilling to resort to - journalistic integrity.

If integrity only sold subscriptions...

Juan A. Hervada

I was moderately impressed by this article. Listing dangers and obstacles is part of a sound analysis. But then, listing favorable factors, if any, is essential for evenhandedness. Hasn't Mr.McCain any bright spots? Hasn't he ***anything*** in today's American society going for him? Well, logic and proportion say he has. A lot. Gallup polls these days say that between 42 and 44 percent of registered voters would vote for him if the election was today. Roughly hyalf the electorate, touching statistical draw with Mr. Obama's 44 to 48 pc.Bets anyone?


Truth be told, in an American election like this, McCain's biggest weakness is his lack of charisma. Even if his plans have better content than Obama's, his presentation of those plans is unlikely to inspire the masses.

Jose Carpintero


If McCain concentrated on attacking Obama with all those superficial one-liners he would loose like an amateurish idiot, that is why he doesn't.

And if you concentrated in finishing High School (you said you were not old enough to vote, right?) instead of using The Economist to bombard Obama with insults in EVERY thread, maybe the level of the discussion would rise.

You seem like a bright kid, but at your age you will benefit a lot more from listening than from talking.

Unless you have some sort of hidden racist agenda fueling all that political enthusiasm.


imright,No doubt many Democrats took Clinton gaffes such as "hard working, white Americans" as racist, but that was not an issue pressed by the Obama campaign, and he was very gracious in victory. There is no parallel between the Swift Boat incident and how some voters and journalists interpreted a few unwise remarks from the Clinton campaign, no matter the validity of those interpretations.As to your other point, what is the Black Power background to which you refer? I can't imagine the Wright scandal getting any bigger press than it has already (which was much more than it ever warranted), and Obama weathered it very well.I hereby move to un-verb "Swift-Boat."


@ petergardiner,It's sad when liberals have to resort to arguments they don't even believe in order to "Swift Boat" a great man. Remember what y'all said in the Clinton impeachment?


The wife U.S. Republican John McCain callously left behind.

McCain will present himself as a selfless, principled war hero whose campaign represents not so much a battle for the presidency of the United States, but a crusade to rescue the nation’s tarnished reputation. McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children.

But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children.

And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965.









For the record, McCain is very competitive in the polls, perhaps because of lifelong Democrats like me supporting him.

If he is aggressive in exposing Obama's Black Power background, he could win.

Even if Obama wins, he will make a horrific mess of things, with his demogogic dishonesty. The far-right Republicans will gain.

No-one is so unscrupulous at the swift-boating game than Obama.

Just as Bush swift-boated a decorated war hero, Kerry, into seeming a coward, so Obama swift-boated the Clintons, known for their decades of anti-racist contributions, into being regarded as racists.

in fact, what turned me against Obamam was his utterly immoral swift-boating of the Clintons.


I am a strong McCain supporter. McCain must take the gloves off and start going after Obama. McCain is a great man, but the deck is stacked against him in this election. He is unlikely to convince that many people who do not already support him to come to his side, because the portion of the Party further to the right is suspicious of him and the Republican brand is supsect among most of the electorate. If he makes too many attempts to court one constituency over the other, he will alienate a constituency he needs to win. What he has to do is make it clear how bad an Obama Presidency would be, while articulating an alternative vision. The points against Obama are clear, but attacking is not enough. He needs to take his ideas, which could be pretty popular, and simplify them in a way that can be easily understood. This would create a contrast that would make it clear to voters that Mr. McCain actually holds beliefs and would enact policies that a large majority of them would support. Most Americans would like to see lower taxes, smaller government, reduced corruption, experience at the helm in foreign affairs, a market-based social safety net without a new bureaucracy, lower gas prices, bi-partisanship, and judges who believe people are intelligent enough to order their own lives. Most Americans do not want to see punitive taxation that punishes success, interventionism, naivety in foreign affairs, a massive expansion of government, higher gas prices, the buttressing of an out of touch judiciary that serves as an adjunct legislature, and policies that reflect Mr. Obama's belief that government can spend our money better than we can and will solve all our problems. These are distinctions to be made that will cut through the rhetoric and ensure a McCain victory. It's up to McCain to make them.


You are mistaken when you describe one of McCain's challenges as "[r]eminding religious conservatives of his long anti-abortion record could turn off moderates, a clear majority of Americans, who support Roe v Wade." As a matter of fact McCain's position on abortion is more liberal than that of most Americans. McCain opposes overturning Roe v. Wade either via legislation or the courts. It has only been in his courting of conservatives in order to get the Republican nomination that he ever started saying otherwise. But those days are behind him, and so is any need for the pretense of being pro-life. Americans in general, on the other hand, believe that Roe v. Wade (the Supreme Court ruling that declares that no state can pass any law outlawing abortion at any stage of pregnancy for any reason) goes too far. Most Americans believe the states should be able to pass outlawing abortion in some (though not all) circumstances. The only consolation McCain offers this moderately pro-life majority is that, though he is more pro-abortion than they are, he is still not as stridently pro-abortion as Obama is.


Krytox seems to have missed what this election is all about. It’s about a lot of things, but experience is surely not one of them. People know what decades of Republican Washington experience bought them in the last 8 years. George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, etc. had infinitely "more experience and supposed good judgment" than McCain will ever have. People want a change from all that. I was for Hillary, but sadly she didn’t get what this election is about either. McCain simply does not represent the level of change that people want, period.

wilfred knight

People vote AGAINST what they don't want, as often as they vote for a candidate
President McCain will keep taxes five-fold LOWER than the mini- marxist Obama.
Now thatIraq is winding down, the economy , jobs, and oil drilling, will all favour President McCain over Obama's high tax socialist economics.


Before I start, I will admit that I am an Obama fan. I tend to fall in the middle of the ideological spectrum between Obama and McCain. The biggest deciding factor to me is that I believe Obama is more likely of the two candidates to restore the Rights and privacies afforded to US citizens under the Consitution (illegal wire tapping anyone?). I am very sensitive to that point because I am an attorney. I see McCain's point of view on that issue to be an extension of current adminstration policies. Not good.

With all that being said the winner in November will be determined by who shows up at the polls. Republicans tend to draw from a small, but more organized and disciplined pool of voters. Democrats are a "big tent" party with lots of members but little discipline. If McCain can energize the Republican base, including those who are currently leukewarm to him, and continue his pull of median centrist voters, then he has a tremendous shot on winning.

On the other hand, Obama has done a great job on moblizing college age and young professional voters. This is a demographic that typically has HORRIBLE turnout. If Obama can manage to draw on some blue collar (read: Ohio, Penn) voters, makes in roads with Dem leaning Latino votes, maintains his block of minority voters, and the youth vote manages to show up, it will not even be a close race.

I think both candidates are worthy individuals, and the United States is blessed to have two qualified individuals. The last two races have been choices between the lesser of two evils. It is going to be an interesting summer.


the problem mccain faces is that he has taken every side of every issue over the past 8 years. first he is in favor of social security privatization, then opposed. first in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, then opposed to it. he opposed the bush tax cuts before he supported them. he was in favor of rights for guantanamo detaines before he was opposed to them before he became silent about the issue... the list goes on.

anyone with any honesty can see that the man has sold out any actual values he had in order to gain political power. honestly, i have no idea what the man actually believes. that will not play well in this election.


Krytox, I think the problem for McCain is right there in your lengthy discourse. To paraphrase you, Obama has already cemented a negative impression in the minds of some people (I won't say "core middle American population" as I'm not certain what that means...middle class? Midwestern?). But that number apparently hasn't been enough to give McCain a majority, at least according to the polls that put Obama in the lead.

hf howard

Let the Swift Boating begin!

Krytox, imright, chernyshevsky...I hope you enjoyed the last 8 years because your days are now over. Your lunatic hotair rantings are an anachronism, and you're about to learn that noone pays attention anymore.


My opinion is the McCain will win in November as long as he can maintain the spotlight on the real Obama, a far left Liberal, and if McCain can maintain that spotlight on Obama he is "done"... it is now an election for McCain to loose.
My reasons are that Obama has already cemented very bad negative impressions of himself with the core middle America population (a key voting block) due to his associations with known extremists like the Reverend Wright and others, which shows a lack of good judgment when it comes to associations, if not a credibility issue of what his believes are and/or of sharing of believes that are contrary to the core believes of most Americans, which are that basically (and with reason) we believe that we are a good nation and not a bad one, that we try to do good, instead of been the cause of the problems in this world, etc. The confirmation that Reverend Wright was his mentor for 20 years, a person that has been shown to believe the contrary to those basic American believes puts into question his most inner believes about America.
Then, on top of that, his negative comments and thoughts about regular folks like the ones in San Francisco, this is Obama in his own words on rural voters in Pennsylvania:
These comments in particular have resonated extreme negatively with those voters, because it attacks their basic lives and core values, values like their choice to pursue religion(s) as they wish, and the freedom to own fire arms, which many uphold as birth right (never mind that it is also in the Constitution).
Compound this with attacks on his judgment on things like his opposition to the surge in Iraq, and calls for an immediate withdrawal of our troops, a judgment that if it had been followed would have created an unbelievable horrific genocide in Iraq, as the factions left alone after our troops departure would have gone to war with each other in a brutally bloody civil war. McCain support for the surge (which has succeeded beyond all expectations) preventing that sure civil war, and now making the war winnable, and thus gaining an allied in the Middle East shows that he has correct judgment on foreign policy at a crucial time ( a time of war) for not only this country but for the world.
In addition, McCain will hammer away on Obama’s lack of experience, and that he has more extensive experience not only in Government but as a proven leader, not only is McCain truly a war Hero, but he commanded for example the Navy’s biggest Air wing Squadron, and then all his years in Congress, were he has shown to be an independent, having worked many times with Democrats like Ted Kennedy, were as for Obama, his resume shows that he is highly partisan with a very limited independent voting record (voting in lockstep with the far left) which makes his slogan of been a “uniter” hard to believe, having not done that in the past. All this shows that he has a long way to go before he is ready for a top executive position like the Office of the Presidency and Commander in Chief. And experience and deeds Ladies and Gentlemen are keys. Voters will not vote for someone that they do not believe can handle situations as they rise and that will be truly a President for all. Obama is too green when looked under the microscope, and not because of chronological age but because of deeds.
It is McCain’s elections to loose.



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