Slate's John Dickerson on McCain's lack of a core message:
In 2000, it was easy for voters to figure out what John McCain had to
offer them. He was a reformer. At town halls, he would answer almost
every question by talking about the corruption in the campaign-finance
system. For an undisciplined politician, he was relentlessly on message
because he had the message in his gut.
(Now) it's harder to know what McCain stands for. He's for the surge and
remedying global warming, yes, and for allowing states to drill for oil
off the country's coastlines. But those are data points, not an arc.
The criticism I hear from inside and outside the campaign is that
McCain lacks a line that tells people where he's going to take them if
he's president.
But this is symptomatic of a deeper problem with McCain's candidacy, isn't it? In the New Yorker's recent profile of Obama he is quoted as saying shortly after Bob Dole's defeat to Bill Clinton in 1996 that Dole "seems to me to be a classic example of somebody who had no reason to run. You're 73, you're already the third-most-powerful man in the country. So why?"
I bet if you asked Obama in private what he thought about McCain's campaign he'd say the same thing, and I think he'd be right. McCain is running because it's his turn. That's not enough.
Right on Sir Marbury. I'm bookmarking you!
Posted by: Edward Napier | July 25, 2008 at 10:26 PM