Good Advice
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 am by Susie
Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and strategist for Hillary Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign, went “off message” (his words) today with a warning to his party: Don’t run against GOP nominee John McCain by painting him as Bush III, because he’s not. Bucking the Democratic National Committee’s talking points that characterize a potential McCain administration as tantamount to a third Bush term, Blumenthal told our Liz Halloran that running on that strategy in the fall would be a mistake. “I understand people’s political reasons for doing that,” he said. “I think it’s more helpful to describe [political opponents] as they are.” Bottom line, Blumenthal calls the strategy “a mistake and adds: “The public doesn’t see [McCain] that way. That’s a hard sell.”
At an event to promote his new book, The Strange Death of Republican America: Chronicles of a Collapsing Party, Blumenthal also predicted that McCain has “lots of room to maneuver” politically before the fall election. What hurts the presumed Republican nominee? His need, Blumenthal says, to reassure conservative Republicans about the kind of nominees he’d make to the Supreme Court.
actually, on almost all issues, he is bush III. mccain’s positions on iraq, iran, taxes, health care, abortion, etc. are practically indistinguishable from W. the problem is not that mccain is actually different from mccain, it’s that he’s wrongly perceived to be different by the american public. apparently mr. blumenthal is among the ones who have been duped by his maverick persona.
I disagree that Blumenthal has been “duped” by the maverick persona; I think that what he sees quite clearly is that the public considers McCain a maverick, and that persona has prevented the public from seeing how conservative and reactionary he really is. The part about the judges is perceptive, because it offers a way for the Dems to point out that McCain is no moderate on social issues; he’s committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, and he’s said so.
Snuzy’s on it, as usual. McCain basically is Bush III, a Neocon’s Neocon if ever there was one. If the public doesn’t perceive this, and is buying the “maverick” image (a “maverick” whose campaign staff have been dropping out like flies because of their multimillion dollar lobbying ties to the Saudis and others), then it’s good politics to raise awareness on these things.
The judicial nominees issue is one way to open the doors of perception in the public mind regarding McCain. And maybe the Dems can break on through to the other side by showing McCain as he truly is, using the judicial nominees lever, and others as well.