September 3, 2008, 2:10 pm
Still One Step Behind
By Michael A. Cohen
Michael A. Cohen is a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of “Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America.” (Full biography)
Last night at the Republican National Convention was “John McCain biography night” as speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of their party’s nominee. President George Bush praised Mr. McCain’s courage and vision and his appreciation of the grave threats facing America in an age of terror; Fred Thompson, the former senator and presidential candidate, laid out the riveting story of Mr. McCain’s personal courage, which has come to define the candidate’s public image; and Senator Joseph Lieberman told delegates of Mr. McCain’s bipartisan bona fides and his efforts to reach across the aisle and bring solutions to serious national challenges.
The end result was the offering to the American people of a positive image of Mr. McCain, depicting him as a man of action, reform, independence and, above all, iconoclastic positions. But two days into the Republican convention — and with public opinion polls showing Barack Obama enjoying a strong bounce from the Democratic National Convention — it’s difficult to argue that this was the most crucial message for Republicans to put out on the first full night of their convention.
The speeches on Tuesday night demonstrated that Hurricane Gustav may have dealt a significant blow to Republican efforts to use their convention to present a strong campaign message for the fall election. The cancellation of Monday’s schedule moved Republicans two steps back; on Tuesday they only were able to take one step forward.
Two very significant elements were missing from the first night of the Republican convention: a coherent narrative that negatively defined Senator Barack Obama, and a clear sense of how the Republican Party will right the country’s economic ship.
To the first point, the McCain campaign spent much of the summer presenting Mr. Obama as a fatuous, celebrity-like figure out of touch with ordinary Americans. In the short-term, Mr. McCain’s tactics seemed to bear fruit as poll results before the Democratic convention showed a tightening of the presidential race. Yet Tuesday’s speeches lacked a cohesive line of attack against Mr. Obama. Mr. Thompson labeled the Democratic nominee as “the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for president,” who would raise taxes on middle class Americans; Mr. Lieberman harped on Mr. Obama’s failure to reach across the aisle or show independence from Democratic orthodoxies.
While these attacks may have had resonance for some voters, they felt more like glancing blows, not full haymakers. With two days down in St. Paul, Republicans have failed so far to truly bloody Mr. Obama. That opportunity may soon be fleeting as it seems unlikely that the vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, or even Mr. McCain will focus the lion’s share of their speeches on attacking their opponent. This is particularly important for Mr. McCain who has, to this point, failed to offer Americans an overly positive or affirmative vision for his candidacy — something he must do on Thursday.
It is the second point, however, that may be the greatest liability to come out of St Paul – the failure to offer Americans a sense of economic hope. Indeed, it was jarring at one point to hear Mr. Thompson say of Democrats, “Listening to them you’d think that we were in the middle of a great depression.” With 80 percent of the country thinking American is on the wrong track — and the economy the number one issue — downplaying people’s economic concerns seems like a dangerous political tactic.
Both Mr. Thompson and Mr. Lieberman presented Mr. McCain as the key to ending the partisanship and gridlock that currently defines Washington D.C. But this message seemed to be offering voters a solution to a problem that is not front and center in their minds. There is no doubt that voters are tired of the nasty, divisive partisanship of modern American politics; but that is hardly their key concern. “It’s the economy, stupid” — and on this point all of Tuesday’ s speakers were lacking. If Republicans leave St. Paul having failed to give the American people a clear sense of how they will end the country’s economic malaise it will be very difficult to judge this convention a success.
This is not to say last night wasn’t an effective evening for Republicans. They were able to offer voters a stirring and glowing image of their party’s standard-bearer. Mr. McCain’s story of heroism in Vietnam is one that most Americans admire — and even in Denver, Democrats practically fell over themselves to acknowledge McCain’s sacrifice. But with the growing backlash over the nomination of Ms. Sarah Palin, the largely positive response to the Democratic Convention in Denver and in particular Mr. Obama’s acceptance speech and the overall structural advantages favoring Democrats this year, Republicans did not need a good night on Tuesday. They needed a great night. They needed to do more than positively portray John McCain for the electorate; they needed to reframe the presidential election so as to present Mr. Obama as a risky and inexperienced pick while offering an appealing economic message.
One of two is not bad; but with very little political room for error, that may not be enough this year.
