How Can McCain NOT Run Against Congress?
By BrianFaughnan Posted in 2008 — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
If Bill Clinton earned a strong re-election win in 1996 by standing against the perceived excesses of a Republican Congress (who favored radical ideas like budget balancing, welfare reform, and term limits) then John McCain ought to take a lesson. Whoever is elected president is likely to be working with a Democratic Congress led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. That Democratic Congress is the lowest rated in history, and has earned its rating by being the least productive Congress in at least 20 years. Under the leadership of Reid and Pelosi, the Congress has fought for timetables to end the war in Iraq, has adopted a budget plan which calls for a huge tax increase, has neglected the growing entitlement problem, ignored high gas prices, and alienated some of our closest allies. And that's not to mention minor issues like threatening to nationalize the U.S. oil industry.
If he is elected president, will Barack Obama bring the Pelosi/Reid Congress to heel, or will he give in to their agenda -- as Bill Clinton did when he fought for tax increases, nationalized health care, and gays in the military after his election in 1992? With an approval rating of just 9 percent, the U.S. Congress is a much easier target than Barack Obama. McCain needs to highlight the agenda of the Democratic leadership, and challenge Barack Obama to spell out his views.
He has been part of Congress for years and years and years. So how can he run against it? He isn't Obama, you know.
He has been speaking out against pork barrell spending for year and years, but I have to admit that I can see Obama's rebuttal, "McCain must be kidding attacking Congress. He has been in Congress for 20+ years." working pretty well.
but requires the Republican congressional leadership to coordinate with the McCain camp, and both agree to make nationalizing the election part of a comprehensive campaign strategy.
Running against congressional approval numbers carries with it some degree of risk for Sen. McCain.
First of all, they need to decide what the message should be and get on the same page. They can call it whatever catchy title they want, but Newt's contract was an easy roadmap to follow, and it projected party unity, strength and direction.
A narrative must be established that those dismal approval numbers represent a rejection of Speaker Pelosi's liberal agenda in the House and unprecedented democratic obstruction in the Senate, especially judicial appointments to the Courts of Appeal that are in crisis due to multiple unfilled vacancies, and then drive the point home... Relentlessly... Until it sticks.
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“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan