Can McCain excite GOP base instead of media base?

Wall Street Journal Editorial:

John McCain's hard-fought victory over Mitt Romney in Florida on Tuesday, combined with Rudy Giuliani's exit, has made the Arizona Senator the clear favorite. Now that the nomination is within Mr. McCain's grasp, he can close out Mr. Romney and help his prospects in November by showing he intends to repair the breach with all parts of the GOP coalition.

Mr. McCain's great political strength has also long been his main weakness, which is that his political convictions are more personal than ideological. He believes in duty, honor and country more than he does in any specific ideas.

These personal qualities are genuine political assets, and they are part of his appeal as a potential Commander in Chief. Among other things, they help explain why he held firm on Iraq when the fair-weather hawks lost their resolve. But he is now on the cusp of leading a coalition that also believes in certain principles, and its "footsoldiers" (to borrow a favorite McCain word) need to be convinced that the Senator is enough on their side to warrant enthusiastic support.

...

The former prisoner of war has a natural advantage on national security, as the primaries have demonstrated. And he might conclude he can defeat any Democrat on those credentials alone. But the primaries have also demonstrated that even Republicans are less sure of Mr. McCain on domestic issues. To pick one example, his health-care reform proposal has many good parts -- including an emphasis on tax equity and competition to reduce costs. But his articulation of it so far is nothing short of terrible and would get him mauled against Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Mr. McCain has already moved to accommodate his many critics on immigration with his talk of "sealing the borders first." And judging by the primary results, this has neutralized immigration as a voting issue. The restrictionists will never be satisfied until he vows to deport every illegal immigrant in the country, and that position is a loser in the fall. After months of immigrant bashing by most of the GOP field, Mr. McCain is the one Republican who might be able to retain his party's Bush-era gains among Hispanic voters.

...

There is much more.

While there may be some who will demand deportation for all, that is not the bulk of the border security voters. They want the rule of law. They want the law to be enforced at the border and at the work place. If that is done self deportation will take care of most who are in the country illegally. They also want the same path to citizenship for everyone. No one gets a better deal than those who follow the rules.

We probably need to increase our immigration quotas to accommodate both applicants and needed workers. We will probably need a regulated guest worker program. McCain has not admitted that his proposal on immigration was wrong. He has admitted that it was politically impossible, which is to admit only the obvious.

His admission on that issue will probably be enough for now. On campaign finance, he will probably never get that one right. His solution will be more regulation which will encourage more deviousness. The best regulation of campaign finance is the SEC approach--disclosure of all relevant facts and no omissions of facts needed to put things in perspective. Disclosure at the time of donation, and not at the end of the quarter would be a better way of handling any potential corruption issues. This would require disclosures of any quid pros quo's associated with the donations, i.e. no material omissions.

When it comes to the environment McCain is hopeless. His opposition to ANWR is not even environmentally sound. It makes no sense. It is hurting the economy and national security. It is a disgrace but he is not likely to be challenged on it in any campaign with Democrats who are just as senseless on the issue.

His tax policy is similar to his immigration policy in that it reflects that political realities do occasionally impose on his instincts.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains