McCain's 7 Steps to Beating Obama

Monday, May. 12, 2008
McCain's 7 Steps to Beating Obama
By Michael Scherer

Sometimes you don't need the secret memo, a Deep Throat source, or the combination to the safe to get the story. Sometimes it's lying right there in front of you, a series of fragments ready to be pieced together.

Such is the case when it comes to John McCain's general election strategy for defeating Barack Obama. For weeks now, the Arizona senator's campaign has been laying its cards on the table, spelling out a strategy for November. Here's a look at seven of their key strategies.

1. Paint Obama as a False Messiah
The big debut for this message came on the night of the Virginia and Maryland primaries. Mike Huckabee was still in the race, but the McCain campaign wanted to pivot towards the general election. So at an Alexandria Holiday Inn, McCain offered these words: "I do not seek the presidency on the presumption that I am blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in its hour of need." The code was not hard to break. McCain was calling out Obama as an unfulfilled prophet, built up on lofty rhetoric and personal charisma. McCain's advisors have been hammering the theme ever since, privately speaking skeptically of Obama's big crowds and "Yes We Can" ritual chants. "The lofty rhetoric," said Steve Schmidt, McCain's message man, on a recent flight. "It's nonsense." This will not let up. McCain's campaign calculates that it must put a dent in Obama's powerful aura to keep a Republican in the White House.

2. Work, Woo and Win the Referees
McCain's willingness to parry and thrust with the press is already the stuff of campaign legend. And if the candidate has his way, the legend will only grow. "He is the best earned media candidate I think in history," Rick Davis, the campaign manager, recently told The New York Times. (Earned media is another way of saying free media, or anything a campaign doesn't pay for.) "And so we will try to use that advantage." In recent weeks, the campaign has relaunched what advisers call the 'Straight Talk Express,' a time when groups of three or four reporters head to the front of the plane, or the back of the bus, for open-ended interviews. The technique exposes McCain to danger. His December admission that "economics is not something I've understood as well as I should" came during one such back of the bus session. But McCain's staff thinks its worth the risk, that by earning the understanding and admiration of reporters they can make Obama seem distant by comparison. Meanwhile, McCain adviser Mark Salter has adopted a traditional 'bad cop' role, regularly criticizing the press, alleging, for instance, that the media has formed a 'protective barrier' around Obama.

3. Meet With the People, and Force Obama to Follow
The second part of McCain's earned media strategy is his people strategy. Some of McCain's best moments on the trail come in the uncontrolled give and take with a crowd. "The town hall meeting is John's best format," says Mark McKinnon, a media adviser for McCain. "He's a natural campaigner up close with the public." Back in 2004, the campaign crowds at George Bush events were designed to screen out Democrats. By contrast, McCain has so far reveled in free-form forums, taking questions in places historically hostile to Republicans, like New Orleans. The campaign has vowed to continue the same format as much as possible going forward. McCain's aides even hope to bring Obama out of his stadium events and put him on the same level. McKinnon has suggested joint appearances by Obama and McCain with questions from the audience and limited moderation. Obama has said he is open to the idea.

4. Claim the High Road Without Leaving the Low Road
Almost every day, McCain finds a reason to say that he wants to run "a respectful campaign." Given the mudslinging that is widely expected from all sides, this is a tenuous proposition. In the final days of the Republican primary, McCain came out hard against Mitt Romney, accusing him of saying that he wanted to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, even though Romney had not endorsed such a move. More recently, McCain has not shown that he is willing to lay off hardball politics. He has repeatedly brought up the fact that a Hamas spokesman said positive things about Obama, even though Obama did not reciprocate the compliments. McCain has also tried to tar Obama by his relationship with William Ayers, a once violent anti-Vietnam War activist, by demanding that Obama call on Ayers to apologize for his actions. (Obama has shot projectiles at McCain as well, misquoting McCain's willingness to have American troops in Iraq for "100 years.") The real message behind McCain's call for "a respectful campaign" appears more narrow: As the political debate disintegrates, which is all but inevitable, McCain wants to be seen as a fighter who can float above the fray.

5. Use A Vice President to Temper The Age Issue
McCain's campaign is resigned to the fact that late night comics are foaming at the prospect of six more months worth of old man McCain jokes. And polls show that the Republican's age ?- he will be 72 by Election Day ?- could have an impact at the ballot box. But both McCain and his advisers have been pointing to a prospect they hope will neutralize the issue: a relatively youthful vice president, who might lesson the fear of, gulp, McCain's death in office. "I'm aware of enhanced importance of this issue given my age," McCain told Don Imus recently, when asked about his vice presidential pick. A few weeks later, campaign adviser Charlie Black elaborated on the assumed power of a solid vice presidential candidate. Back in 1980, Black recounted, Ronald Reagan was running for president as an older man at 69. "The day he picked George Bush to be vice president, the age issue pretty much went away," Black recalled. "If [McCain] makes a good choice, that might alleviate the issue."

6. Make Inroads Among Traditional Democratic Voters
These days Republicans love to talk about the larger crossover vote that McCain wins in the early and unreliable general-match up polls. In one Pew poll from late February, as many as 14 percent of Democrats say they will vote for McCain, compared to eight percent of Republicans who say they will vote for Obama. With so many months before the election, these numbers are not very meaningful. But they point to a key goal of the McCain campaign: upset the traditional partisan divide with a new generation of McCain-o-Crats. This is a defensive strategy as much as an offensive one, given the nine-point advantage that Democrats have in party identification nation wide. (According to another recent Pew poll, only 36 percent of registered voters identify themselves as Democrats and 27 percent as Republicans, the lowest GOP number in at least 16 years.) Campaign staff say they see hope in Obama's recent trouble shoring up the Democratic base of working class voters.

7. Rely on the Historic RNC Advantage
March was a good example of the disparity between the two candidates' financial machines. McCain attended 26 fundraisers in 24 cities, raising about $15 million. Obama, who was still engaged in a nomination fight, raised more than $40 million, and attended just six fundraisers. God bless the Internet. Much of that Obama money will now be channeled into a major voter registration and get out the vote operation. The McCain campaign hopes to contain the Obama advantage by depending heavily on the Republican Party machinery, which has a historically superior general election get out the vote operation. As a result, the campaign has been encouraging wealthy donors to give even after they have reached their $2,300 donation limit for McCain. Under a program called "McCain Victory '08," donors are encouraged to give up to $70,000 to state and national party funds. After the general election, McCain is likely to accept $84 million in public financing to carry his campaign through the final two months. With the voter files of Republican Party, they expect to reduce Obama's big money advantage to a curious historical footnote.

Time.com