McCain's Mission

Mark Halperin accurately pinpoints, in TIME magazine, some matters that require John McCain's attention if he's going to win in November.

One important observation is this: He needs to be aware of "[h]ow little most Americans care about foreign policy (beyond the Iraq War) when the economy is in the tank."

The latest bad news from the economy was pretty bad. Unemployment just recorded its sharpest increase in more than two decades.

I wasn't an economics major, but I don't think it's necessary for someone to have a degree in economics to know that High fuel prices + high food prices + housing slump + weaker jobs market = frustrated voters is an equation to which no political party wants to be linked.

Similarly, Halperin says, McCain needs to be aware of "[t]he extent to which [his] lack of an economic message could make Obama (who also is challenged in adequately addressing the economy) seem like Bob Rubin, Bill Clinton, and Lou Dobbs all rolled into one."

It shouldn't be necessary to remind either presumptive nominee that the American people look to their president for leadership in times of crisis.

And there may be no greater crisis than a weak economy.

Halperin also advises McCain to be wary of "[t]he ever-present danger on the trail that he might evoke Bob Dole with a Bob Dole-like misstep (fall off a stage, sound like a Washington fossil, seem angry and out of touch)."

As a Naval Academy graduate, McCain knows the unique problems posed by having to wage a two-front war.

Yet that is something Halperin suggests McCain will have to do. He must tackle "[t]he inherent difficulty/sensitivity of running against two figures at once. McCain will have to 1) explicitly criticize a sitting Republican president before Republican audiences and 2) prevent the historic event of electing the nation’s first African-American president that many in the country (and the media) desire."

McCain may have to tell some Republican audiences some things they don't want to hear. But he can't broaden his electoral appeal unless he does. It's the only way he can deal with allegations that his election equals a third Bush term.

The Bush-McCain relationship, "like most political relationships, is complicated," writes David Shribman in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Bush isn't popular with the public at large, but he retains some popularity within his party. McCain can't afford to alienate this crucial part of his party's base.

It really isn't that much different from Hubert Humphrey's efforts to distance himself from Lyndon Johnson's policy on Vietnam 40 years ago. As Shribman observes, Johnson's decision to stop bombing North Vietnam five days before the election was "maybe not too little to help Humphrey but surely too late."

Perhaps the most noteworthy difference between Humphrey's situation and McCain's is that Humphrey was Johnson's vice president. McCain, although a supporter of most of Bush's war policies, has been at odds with Bush at times, and his role as Bush's challenger eight years ago earned him some continuing support from those in the electorate who see him as independent of the Bush administration.

"Mr. McCain is running to extend Republican control of the White House to 12 years, maybe 16," Shribman says. "He is as closely identified with the Iraq War as Mr. Bush is. The two are closer than before, but anyone who watches the body language senses the formality rather than the familiarity in the relationship."

But maybe the most significant observation is simply this:

"[I]n modern America," Halperin writes, "perception is often reality and style often beats substance."

Halperin has several things for McCain to keep in mind as he prepares for the general election campaign.