What McCain should do

Far be it from us to give Senator McCain advice. He has never really listened to the New Media, preferring instead to listen to the talking heads of the Beltway media. Unfortunately he learned a little too late that they really don't like him unless he's hammering on a fellow Republican. This is the reason why the MSM still pays attention to fools like Chuck Hagel.

Jennifer Rubin has some advice for him, and it's sound. He should listen this time:

Bill Kristol is right, certainly, that John McCain needs to break the trajectory of the race or he will lose.

We are in the Black Hole – the period of thrust and parry between debates, aggravated by the bailout fight — when the race will congeal and voters’ views will be fixed. It is a measure of how divided the country is and what liabilities Barack Obama are saddled with that this has not already happened.

And this is familar ground for McCain whose campaign nearly died in the summer of 2007. Then he could carve a quiet space in New Hampshire to talk to voters and rely on new media which still was willing to hear his message. Now he must compete in the loudest, fastest, wildest campaign ever, get beyond the hostile media and somehow get voters’ attention.

So while his campaign turns up the heat and does what the MSM will not — lay bare the record and identity of Obama — he would do well to start a look-’em-in-the-eye series of ads and some heart-to-heart conversations with voters. Give voters a list of all the hard choices and specific things he’s going to do and why his opponent is evading the tough truths (Where exactly is Obama going to control the budget? Why does Obama pander on trade when he knows better?) or making bad choices (Why would we raise taxes as we slide into a recession?).

McCain won the GOP primary (albeit in a divided field) largely in a character contest. No less a figure than Bill Clinton remarked that “his greatness is that he keeps trying to come back to service without ever asking people to cut him any slack or feel sorry for him or any of that stuff because he was a POW.” If he can make it that again — a contest of moral fiber and character – he has his shot.

Senator McCain needs to tighten up his campaign, and take off the gloves. Forget the cute ads, the funny ads, etc., and focus on drawing a contrast between himself and Obama. He started that Friday after the debate by releasing the first post-debate ad hammering Obama over the fact he kept repeating that McCain was right during that debate.

No one in the media is talking about Obama, his views, his relationships, and just how bad this nation will end up being under his presidency. McCain can start right there. Do what the media didn't do because they had too many thrills running up their collective leg every time Obama opened his inexperienced yap. The media is perfectly content to rip on McCain because he doesn't know economics all that well, or to rip on Sarah Palin because she's just a no-name governor from a state most in the media have never ventured to save now because they're attempting to dig up dirt on her.

The media has given Obama a pass; they've not vetted him at all. They were content to jump on his bandwagon because they were sick of the Clintons. They never really peppered him with questions about his ties to: William Ayers, Tony Rezko, Mayor Richard Daley, Governor Rod Blagojevich, and other key members of the Chicago Machine. They never asked him about his time on the board of the Annenberg Challenge. They never bothered to ask him why, given his numerous "present" votes in the state legislature, he thinks he has the ability to lead and make decisions when he's not made an important decision in his life. (For the record, choosing his wife and his vice presidential running mate would not be considered "executive level" decisions, so no, they don't count.)

McCain has hammered home the point that he has the experience needed to lead. He now needs to show voters that Obama lacks that. And when the media challenges him on it in interviews, he needs to fire back. Quit playing the banter game with fools in the MSM, and hit them right back where it hurts.

"You people helped choose him. You didn't vet him. And now you're running interference for him because you don't want the truth to come out; the truth that he isn't ready to lead."

We have been waiting for John McCain to get tough; to get a little angry. We haven't seen that yet. We need to see that. We need to see that the old fighter pilot mentality hasn't been laid down at the side of the road in favor of taking the high road. No one says he needs to get down in the mud, and fling sh*t at Obama. But he does need to double down, and toughen up. He won't win the presidency until he does this, and prove to the nation that he is the better choice.

Publius II