William Katz: Urgent Agenda
In this space Tuesday I laid out a blueprint for John McCain to beat Hillary Clinton. It wasn't an endorsement. I'm simply guessing that McCain will be the candidate. Here, I propose a blueprint for the more difficult task of defeating Barack Obama. I don't think Obama will be the nominee of his party, but he could be. If he's reasonably close to Clinton as the primaries continue, the blunt fact that the Democratic Party depends on the black vote for survival may well create an effective veto of Clinton. FDR would say, "Clear it with Sidney," meaning Sidney Hillman, a powerful labor leader of the time. Now the Democratic bigs may have to say, "Clear it with Sharpton." It's depressing, I know, but we're talking numbers.
So, how would McCain defeat Obama? Here are the steps:
1. He must not be afraid of him. Fear of Obama, because he would be the first black candidate to be chosen for president by a major party, is the single greatest drag the Republicans can impose on themselves. There'd be a tendency to fight with one hand behind their back, and that tendency would be reinforced by the sixties crowd saying, "You must not be rough on this man. The whole world is watching." McCain must be blunt:
"This is an election for president of the United States. It is not about skin color, Mr. Obama's or mine. It is not about settling scores, or healing past grievances. We have other ways of doing that. It is about the most powerful office in the world. I don't want the vote of anyone who 'votes white,' who only cares about my color. I would hope that Mr. Obama would not want the vote of anyone who 'votes black.' Both are wrong. The question is who will make the best president. I will run against Mr. Obama the way I would run against any other candidate with whom I profoundly disagree. I can show no greater respect for him."
McCain might say that, by the way, before a black audience. And then he must do just that - run against Obama as a man with whom he profoundly disagrees.
2. But, he must be ready for the race card. Look, it will be played. It will be played with extreme viciousness. If America's "first black president" can, in effect, be accused of racism by the Obama legions, what do you think they'll do to any Republican? The Obamans might find someone on McCain's staff who once said something about a black guy, or who went to a party with someone who did. If it's a solid charge, the staff member must go. But if it's false or wildly exaggerated, McCain must say this:
"I will not fire a man for something he did not do, or for standing next to someone he did not know. I don't do witch-hunts. This is America."
The nation will side with him.
If McCain is accused of "insensitivity," he must confront Obama directly in a debate:
"Mr. Obama, I served in the United States Navy as a professional officer. I've been in combat with more black men than you've known. I've seen their courage, their dignity, their pride. I learned more about black men patrolling the seas off Vietnam than you ever did patrolling the prissy halls of the Harvard Law School."
And McCain must be relentless, absolutely relentless, in pursuing that vision. The race card can be beaten. He must make Obama look like a small-time pol, not a statesman.
There's a more subtle use of the race card. The other side can say, "Won't it be great to see the reaction all over the world if Barack Obama's picture is in the paper the day after election as the new president of the United States? How do you think the world will react if we turn him down? Can our reputation be worse?" Believe me, that's coming. In the sixties they called it the guilt trip.
McCain must hit it head on, with a touch of ridicule, making the players of that card look like amateurs:
"This is complete nonsense. Does anyone think Russia will care what the new president looks like? How about China? Europe? Japan? You think anyone will become a nice guy because Mr. Obama doesn't look like me? How about Osama bin Laden, in his cave? Will he suddenly collapse in respect for us? We may get a small bump in prestige in Africa, but it will last five minutes. This is politics. People care what the president will do, not what he looks like on TV."
3. McCain must make clear the stakes. This is an important election, a critical election:
"Who wins may determine whether a boy in Iowa fights and dies in a foreign war. It may determine whether we're on our knees before oil mullahs, drunk on power. It may determine whether our cities and, yes, even our shopping malls and small towns, are attacked."
By constantly stressing the importance of the election, McCain diminishes the candidate who seems less qualified. A little fear doesn't hurt. When people feel they're under siege, they turn to the man who can protect them.
4. He must drop this idea that Obama has no record. That's crazy. By saying a man has no record, you don't have much to talk about. No, Obama has no great accomplishments, but he has a record, and it's a record to the left of Hillary Clinton. McCain must detail that record, must paint the picture of Obama as a man who tries to seem moderate, but is way out in left field.
5. And McCain must destroy the notion of Obama as some kind of "transformational" candidate. Are we serious here? In a debate, McCain says:
"Mr. Obama, you claim to be a new kind of candidate. But look at the people around you. You have Jimmy Carter's failed national-security adviser. You have boss Daley in Chicago. You're in tight with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. When you needed campaign cash, you went to a financier in New York, a man with legal problems, who's called America a Nazi country. What's new about that, Mr. Obama? What's new about anything you've ever done? You're a Chicago politician who's never taken a stand that the old Democratic Party of the sixties disagrees with."
That's key. Obama must be painted as very ordinary, a guy who speaks well, and that's it. As the Texans would say, he's all hat and no cattle.
6. McCain must ruthlessly expose Obama's actions. He's apparently intervened in the affairs of Kenya, his father's native country, on the side of an anti-American, Islamist politician. Get that guy's quotes. What will Obama say? I didn't know? Expose Obama as a candidate in way over his head.
7. McCain must be the powerful personality. There's an age difference. Obama is an attractive guy. But McCain has a much more powerful personality, and he has to use it. Psychologically, the man who projects power becomes younger.
8. McCain must strike a fatal blow. He must nail Obama at Obama's point of greatest weakness. Obama continues to stress his opposition to the Iraq war, and he does it in rather crude terms, not simply denouncing mistakes, but saying it should never have been fought.
All right, in a debate, John McCain says this:
"Mr. Obama, I respect your right to dissent, but you have done it in the most vile way. You have humiliated our soldiers by saying that the struggle in which they have given everything should not have been fought. Well, Mr. Obama, I have a challenge for you. Tomorrow morning, I want you to go with me to Walter Reed Hospital. I want you to look into the eye of a boy who's lost his legs in the service of his country. And I want you to tell him that he wasted his time. And then I want you to ask him for his vote."
Have you ever seen a man look eight inches tall? Have you ever seen Obama look eight inches tall?
9. Work the most important image of all:
"My fellow Americans, I carry around with me a copy of the Constitution of the United States. It lists the responsibilities of the president. And, reflecting the wisdom of the founders, the first responsibility is commander-in-chief. We don't know what the future brings, but on January 20th of next year, if I take the oath of office, I will be prepared at that moment to handle whatever any nation throws at us. My father was an admiral, my grandfather was an admiral. That is our tradition. I am ready."
And that's the way McCain does. it.
Posted on January 24, 2008.