HOW McCAIN BEATS HILLARY

The GOP race is still up in the air, and we all know there could be a surprise.  However, if I had to bet, I'd bet McCain will eventually be the nominee.  That doesn't thrill everybody.  I have my own reservations, the same ones many Urgent Agenda readers probably have.  But I was thinking a few days ago - if McCain is the nominee, and the Dems pick Hillary, how should McCain run?   How does he defeat Hillary Clinton? 

It won't be easy.  The Clinton machine will throw everything at McCain, or any other Republican candidate.  There'll be whispering campaigns about his first marriage, about his temper.  Some may even question his conduct as a POW.  That's the way a certain crowd plays the game.  Watch how Hillary is going after Obama, and he's a black Democrat.  You can imagine what's coming.

But here's my blueprint for a McCain victory in November:

1.  He must run as the candidate of the future, and portray Hillary as a throwback to the social convulsions of the sixties.  He's the 21st-century candidate, ready for the new age, able to handle another 9-11, and determined to prevent one.  She's from the crowd that thinks the most important event of the last hundred years was Roe v. Wade.  Make her look old.  Give him the spirit of youth and adventure, combined with the wisdom of experience.  His physical age becomes an unimportant asterisk.  

2.  He must run as the peace candidate.  Hillary?  Her old-time thinking can slip us into another war.  After all, Osama bin Laden was planning 9-11 on her husband's watch, while policies she approved of were in place.  "My friends," McCain says, "I've seen war.  I've seen friends die.  I know how to prevent war, and it isn't by going back to the failed policies of the Clinton clan."

3.  He must run as the pride candidate.  I've even heard people who disagree with McCain say they'd be proud to have a man like that, with his history, in the White House.  The contrast must be established.  Would anyone actually be proud to have Hillary Clinton as president?  Have you ever heard anyone say it?

4.  He must counter her appeal to women.  Don't give up the women's vote.  It's often been said that women don't vote for their pals for president, they vote for daddy.  McCain has an appeal as the ultimate protector, and his mother, wife and daughter make a great team around him.   He could also choose a female running mate, maybe someone from outside politics.  But not Oprah.

5.  He must run Bill Clinton off the campaign trail.  When John McCain was being beaten in a POW camp, Bill Clinton was a draft dodger at a high-toned university. Yes, it's true, Clinton beat two legitimate war heroes in his presidential campaigns.  But they were not contemporaries.  There was no direct comparison.  The contrast between Clinton and McCain, men of the same era, is stark.  Bill becomes an instant embarrassment, if the contrast is skillfully presented.  It rubs off on his candidate wife, who never expressed any disagreement with his youthful behavior.

6.  He must hammer her as inconsistent, false and wrong on Iraq.  The war is unpopular, but losing is even more unpopular.  If Hillary Clinton's opposition to the surge had become policy, we would have lost.  It didn't become policy, and we're winning.  Who would you trust for the future of national defense?

7.  He must become the youth candidate.  Remember - kids rebel against their parents, but turn to their grandparents.  McCain has an enthusiastic group of youthful campaign workers.  That can grow.  The most searing experience of his life came when he was a young man.  You'd be surprised how young people react to a man who went through hell when he was their age.  Don't sell the young generation short.  It's the 9-11 generation.

8.  He must take on the role that Obama wanted, the transformational candidate. He runs as a man who symbolizes the whole nation, someone who can be above the ordinary in politics.  He's "larger" than his opponent, not the common contender.

9.  He must run as the "legacy" candidate, Mr. Public Service, son of an admiral, grandson of an admiral.  "I have nothing more to prove," McCain says.  "I'll always make the best decision for my country.  It's what I've been taught."

If McCain runs with that blueprint, I think he wins.

Posted on January 22, 2008.