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Home General McCain Needs to Woo Conservatives

2/6/2008 By Ben 3 Comments

McCain Needs to Woo Conservatives

Since last night’s results make it increasingly apparent that Sen. John McCain is not only the Republican front-runner but its putative nominee-to-be, here are some thoughts. Exit polls confirm the obvious – that McCain has a lot of work to do to woo conservatives.

Mary Matalin (via KJ Lopez at the Corner) has some concrete ideas for what the McCain campaign can do to make it happen:

A “trust but verify” strategy for McCain might include:

** announcing in his CPAC speech that he is leaving CPAC and going straight to Newt’s for a comprehensive tutelage on “Real Change.”

** adopting Fred’s immigration plan and Rudy’s tax plan;

** announcing that he would establish a Cabinet-level Domestic Policy Czar who will report directly to him, be housed in the White House, and would would oversee and consolidate all the “soft Cabinets.” This would be followed by the announcement that he planned to name Jeb Bush as the czar;

** announcing Ted Olson as attorney general;

** announcing George Allen as secretary of the Treasury;

** recognizing that Romney has made and could put blue states in play, and is relentlessly optimistic about America. Therefore he would install him as RNC general chairman to traverse the country and chatterati shows as the 21st century face of conservatism.

Along the same lines, Mark Tapscott has some ideas for a McCain CPAC speech (H/T Captains Quarters):

Here’s my initial suggestions for what conservatives should expect from McCain, as a minimum:

1. McCain-Coburn: Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma may be the most credible politician in the GOP, thanks to his no-nonsense, bluntly honest approach to earmarks and federal spending. Coburn is already a McCain supporter. Reagan announced Schweicker ahead of the 76 GOP convention. McCain can put Coborn on the ticket and make him the McCain administration’s tax and budget czar.

2. Reform McCain-Feingold: McCain should admit the First Amendment says Congress shall make NO law regarding freedom of political speech. That means McCain-Feingold must be rewritten as a campaign finance disclosure law, not a campaign speech regulation.

3. Build The Fence: Stop the nonsense and doubletalk. Like Reagan said, a nation that cannot control its border is not a sovereign nation.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more suggestions from the Republican and conservative punditocracy over the coming weeks. But that’s only because it’s crucial for McCain to do some serious wooing of conservatives if the party is going to hold together and have a chance of being energized this November.

Now the only entertainment left in this Presidential primary season is on the Democratic side. To me, it’s clear and simple: If McCain is to be the GOP nominee, Republicans who want to preserve the White House need to be cheering for one Democrat candidate to win and another to lose. The Arizona Senator matches up much better with one than the other, and if you’ve been paying any attention, you should be able to figure out who is who.

But for the fact that it will practically be in our backyard, I’m looking forward to the possibility of a Democratic National Convention with plenty of fireworks. The Clinton-Obama race is far from over, and could be a race to the finish line.

Filed Under: General, National Politics Tagged With: Barack Obama, conservatives, CPAC, DNC Convention, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mark Tapscott, Mary Matalin, National Review, punditocracy

Comments

  1. Steven Nielson says

    2/6/2008 at 9:54 am

    Ben –

    Great post! You are absolutley correct, that McCain needs to spend a lot of time and energy focussing on the conservative base of the party. It is easy to assume at this point that should McCain win, Huckabee will be the VP. That being the case, I would like to call on our LPR learnings to discuss the weakness in the Reagan coalition, and how a McCain-Huckabee ticket can win the party and unite the country.

    First, there are the five categories of the political spectrum: equal outcome, care & fair, Pocketbook, Rules & order, Faith.

    Huckabee brings the faith based voters to the table… no contest. But he also reaches out to the moderate and youthful vote by relating to the Care & Fair voters. McCain has some of the Rules & Order voters, less the immigration hawks… But neither one seems to have a big following in the Pocket-book voter group. As you stated above, if they can strengthen their coalition to include great FICON advisers, they will ensure a strong Republican campaign heading into November.

    So how do they win in November? Easy. McCain and Huckabee appeal to their respective Republican base, but they also have appeal to the moderates and independents… and Huckabee has huge appeal to the youth voters. That could be a lethal combination, especially since we have conservatism on our side…

    Obama or Clinton… I can’t see either standing a chance in November against whomever we select as a nominee!

  2. Ben says

    2/6/2008 at 10:19 pm

    I hope your optimism is well-placed. Don’t be so sure that McCain ends up picking Huckabee as VP.

    I think Chris Cilizza is write to bring forward the name of SC Gov Mark Sanford.

    Check out his Running Mates Line (almost a week old now, I know) here:
    http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/02/the_line_on_runningmates.html

  3. Steven Nielson says

    2/7/2008 at 9:32 am

    Ben – I think the most liekly pick for McCain is Huckabee. His strong showing in the rural and most conservative parts of hotly contested states (like MO) show that he can help lock up the social conservatives for McCain. As well, Huckabee has the name recognition, the likeability, the oratory skills, and the experience that some of the other picks may not have. If McCain and Huckabee continue momentum into the convention, Huckabee should be the pick. If Huckabee falls flat, McCain may pick someone else who has not embarrassed himself nationally. I don’t see Huckabee taking big losses, rather making some positive gains in the upcoming states, and (optimism… engaged) will have momentum as the party goes to convention.

    Unfortunately for Mitt, and I had said this before, he is not mentioned in the list of VP candidates for McCain, and needed to win the convention if he wanted to be on the ticket.

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