Jamie

Weinstein

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October 20, 2008

They’re Far From Conventional, But These Moves Might Spur a McCain Comeback

Things aren't looking good for John McCain.

In all the major battleground states, Barack Obama is leading, sometimes commandingly so. Nothing epitomizes this trend more than the status of the race in Virginia. The RealClearPolitics average has Obama currently topping McCain by more than 8 percentage points. This is, mind you, in a state that went to George W. Bush in both 2000 and 2004 by a margin greater than 8 points. The last Democratic presidential candidate to claim Virginia's electoral votes was Lyndon Johnson 44 years ago.

In recent weeks, the McCain campaign has been dominated by peripheral issues. Obama's connection to Bill Ayers may be important, but it is not nearly as important as McCain's ideas for governance and the inspirational story that McCain himself embodies. 

Furthermore, many Americans are understandably disheartened by McCain's choice for vice president. They see Sarah Palin as unprepared to take over the helm of the world's only superpower in these uncertain times if catastrophe struck. Among other reasons, this is why conservative figures such as General Colin Powell and political satirist Christopher Buckley – son of conservative icon William F. Buckley – have come out publicly in support of Barack Obama.

With two weeks to go until Americans go to the polls to select our next president, the momentum is clearly not on McCain's side. But all is not yet lost. 

McCain has come back from dire circumstances before. Look no further than his phoenix-like rise during the Republican primaries. It is theoretically possible for McCain to make such a comeback, but he must act now and must come to the America people with a new, visionary program that will make Americans see him as a man ready and capable to lead during these perilous times. 

No matter how disastrous and disturbing McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as vice president was, the fact remains that if Barack Obama is elected, he will lead a government completely under the control of liberal Democrats. With the White House in Democratic hands and a possible filibuster-proof Democratic Senate, not to mention a Democratic-controlled House, there is no limit to the misguided liberal legislation that could be passed over the next four years. We will likely see liberal judges appointed, entitlement reform ignored, taxes increased and, if Obama's rhetoric is to be believed, a much more protectionist trade policy. Add to this mix a gross naivety with regard to foreign policy, and it is not too hard to decipher the makings of economic and foreign policy disaster.

While John Wayne McCain may have gone to the gimmick well a few times too much recently, he has no choice but to come before the public with a few bold, headline-catching proposals that would launch his campaign back into the spotlight and jolt the momentum his way. Here are a few suggestions:

1) McCain should announce that if elected he will only serve one term. There are downsides to such a proposal, but at this point such a pledge is the type of commitment that could grab the public's attention and paint McCain as the bold leader that he is and always has been. For four years, he should emphasize, the White House will be a politics-free zone. He will work assiduously to fix the mounting challenges that America faces and put the country that he loves, and that he has sacrificed so much for, back on track to lead yet another century.

2) In a separate headline-catching address a few days later, Sarah Palin should similarly pledge her total devotion to McCain's bi-partisan vision of Washington and pledge that she will not seek her party's nomination for president at the end of McCain's one term, in order to support her boss' vision of a politics-free White House. 

3) In order to swing independents over to his side and even attract some Democrats, McCain should lay before the American people a list of leaders he will ask to join his cabinet. The list should include popular Democrats and well-respected Republicans, such as Al Gore as the newly created Energy Czar and Colin Powell as Secretary of Defense.

4) Additionally, McCain should declare that he would create a council of wise men from the private sector from which he would actively seek advice. Among the people he would ask to join such a council, he should tell the American people, would be financial guru Warren Buffett (an Obama supporter) and oil man turned alternative energy booster T. Boone Pickens. 

5) To excite the conservative base to come out in droves on Election Day, McCain should also issue a list of strict constructionist judges currently serving in the judiciary from which he pledges to select any new Supreme Court nominees during his tenure in the White House. 

Don't get me wrong. I am not particularly keen on seeing Al Gore back in the White House in any capacity, but the fact remains that McCain is currently on track to lose this race and potentially lose in a landslide. Something needs to be done now to shake up the campaign in a last ditch effort to restore America's faith in his leadership. Besides returning to the free-wheeling campaign style that won him the Republican primary, McCain must make bold, revolutionary proposals that will grab the attention of the American people and show him to be a leader ready and able to put America back on track.

Hope is not yet lost for McCain yet, but the hour is late and time is rapidly expiring from the play clock. He must act now. Right now.

© 2008 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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