McCain’s Winning Strategy

Last year, re-reading The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam’s magnificent history of the Vietnam War, I encountered a passage which has since haunted me. Writing of President Kennedy in June, 1963, Halberstam reflects:

"It was as if he were liberated from the insecurities of his first two years with that one act [the Cuban missile crisis], and now, more confident of himself, more confident of the nation’s response to him; he was the President." [Emphasis added.]

Having grown up with the Camelot myth, it took some reflection before I could embrace Halberstam’s hard-headed assessment – that, for all his charisma, style and self-confidence, JFK had only begun to reach his potential when his presidency was brutally cut short.

But this reflection, more than anything, has led me to conclude that – despite significant differences of policy and philosophy – I must vote for John McCain this November. Simply stated, I fear that Barack Obama would prove another JFK – requiring at least half his term to become, effectively, President.

And, right now – in a dangerous world – we can’t afford that.

Mine is not a romantic outlook. My goals are decidedly progressive, but, as a student of history, I don’t believe charisma is a substitute for experience. Nor do I see Congressional Democrats – under untested leadership and shaky after eight years of knuckling under to President Bush – as prepared to govern without a steady hand in the Oval Office.

That said, I could be far more enthusiastic about John McCain if he used his candidacy to move the Republican Party toward the center – and not just as a matter of short-term campaign strategy.

For almost three decades now, Americans have been misgoverned by an entrenched, two-party system consisting of a party of bigotry, ignorance, greed, chauvinism, and superstition and a party of mere opportunism, with no principles beyond a desire to win the next election.

McCain can’t reform the Democrats, but – win or lose – he could use his campaign to move his party back toward the “big tent” which offered full participation to moderate and even liberal Republicans.

And, in my judgment, such a move would be McCain’s best chance for victory.

For this much is certain: If McCain continues wooing his party’s reluctant conservatives into the fall, he won’t be President. His winning strategy – which is also, I believe, America’s best hope – involves greater boldness and vision.

If McCain wants to win, he must embrace three realities:

First, while most Americans respect him, not many are excited about him. He has yet to energize a substantial group of citizens to counter the legions who have fallen under the spell of his charismatic opponent.

And this matters.

The election of 2008 won’t be won by eking out 270 electoral votes with a carefully crafted, swing-state strategy. It will be won by capturing the heart of America.

Second, McCain must address the age question. Few doubt his present vitality and fitness for the presidency, but the Oval Office exacts an enormous price from most occupants. McCain can certainly serve one four-year term, but it’s fair to assume he might not opt to seek re-election.

Thus, his choice of Vice-President – and his ability to elevate other potential successors – will be of particular importance, not only to his candidacy, but to the future direction of his party.

Third, McCain simply must address the challenge at the heart of Obama’s strategy – which is the suggestion that McCain’s election would, in effect, prove a third term for George W. Bush.

It’s really the only good argument Obama has – and McCain must meet it head-on.

In addressing these three realities, McCain should begin by reading one book – Christine Todd Whitman’s It’s My Party, Too – a moderate Republican’s appeal to restore the Republican “big tent” which social conservatives have worked so sedulously to destroy.

It’s a short book – McCain could skim during a single transcontinental flight.

He should read it – and then offer its author the second slot on his ticket.

He couldn’t do better.

Christie Whitman served seven years as Governor of New Jersey – constitutionally, the most powerful chief executive in the fifty states. She went on to head the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush – resigning when her sincere environmentalism ran afoul of the administration’s pro-corporate agenda.

Offering the Vice-Presidency to Governor Whitman would accomplish many things.

First, given her history with the Bush Administration, it would clearly signal that McCain’s administration would be no “third term”.

Second, choosing a running mate of clear presidential caliber would effectively blunt the age question.

Third, a Whitman candidacy would electrify two significant groups: Moderate-to-liberal Republicans, marginalized since the Reagan Revolution of 1980; and millions of women still unhappy with Hillary Clinton’s treatment at the hands of the Democratic establishment and the mainstream media.

Finally, a McCain-Whitman ticket would scramble the electoral contest in interesting ways.

1. New Jersey’s 15 electoral votes would come into play.

2. Whitman would help in the eastern half of vital Pennsylvania, among New England’s moderate Republicans, and with the “snowbirds” of Florida.

3. Looking beyond McCain’s presidency, Whitman – as a potential future candidate -- would offer the prospect of moving the Republican Party back toward inclusiveness.

But if putting on the ticket would energize moderate and liberal Republicans, McCain could go further in this direction by elevating a second prospective successor – America’s leading Republican moderate.

The day after the Democratic convention, McCain should fly to Sacramento and - standing next to California's governor - announce that his first legislative proposal to the 111th Congress will be a Constitutional amendment removing the bar to naturalized citizens serving as President.

With this announcement, McCain would claim the respectful attention of every immigrant group in America. He would also put Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California– with its 55 electoral votes – seriously into play.

These two steps – nominating Christie Whitman for Vice-President and proposing an amendment opening the Presidency to naturalized citizens – would hardly suffice to win McCain the White House.

But, by energizing millions of voters, quashing talk of a third term for the Bush administration, and moving the Republican Party back toward the American mainstream – it would considerably level the playing field.