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McCain Throws 1st Campaign Volley

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The Washington Post

Published: June 4, 2008

NEW ORLEANS - Republican Sen. John McCain wasted no time Tuesday night in launching his first general-election broadside against Sen. Barack Obama, casting the Democrat as an out-of-touch liberal who offers a false promise of change.

In a prime-time speech designed to upstage Obama on the night he claimed the Democratic nomination, McCain began what top aides and other Republicans promise will be an aggressive effort to claim the mantles of reform, experience and mainstream values. Obama, he said, is an "impressive man" but one with a thin record.

"For all his fine words and all his promise, he has never taken the hard but right course of risking his own interests for yours; of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for our country," McCain said less than two hours before Obama spoke in the same St. Paul, Minn., arena where McCain will claim the Republican nomination in September.

McCain began his speech by praising Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who in the Democratic primary race won over many rural and working-class voters that McCain hopes to capture in November. "As the father of three daughters, I owe her a debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity in this great country beyond their reach," McCain said.

Two McCain aides said his speech was the beginning of a "great debate" on the direction of the country. It will be followed quickly by a television ad campaign aimed at reinforcing McCain's core message: that Obama's sweeping rhetoric offers little real promise of changing the political culture in Washington.

Not Another Bush Term, He Says

Confronting what his aides expect to be Obama's principal attack against him, McCain explicitly rejected the idea that he represents President Bush's third term.

"Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again?" he asked. "Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false."

As evidence of his independence, McCain highlighted his breaks with Bush on Iraq, energy and climate change.

A McCain-Obama matchup means voters will have a stark choice in November between two men who both assert that they will be the agents of upheaval in Washington.

One is a military hero Americans have known for decades as a cantankerous lawmaker. The other is a community organizer from the South Side of Chicago who first drew the national spotlight with a soaring speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

McCain Struggles Early

McCain crossed the nominating finish line long before Obama, but he has struggled to take advantage of the extra time. He has spent the past two months unveiling campaign themes and taking swipes at Obama. McCain's campaign has also been dogged by questions about his age and health, his wife's tax returns and his connection to controversial pastors and lobbyists.

Some Republican observers have expressed concern about how slowly McCain has moved to match Obama's organizational prowess. He finished the primary season with a skeletal staff, and campaign offices are just now opening in dozens of states as McCain and the Republican National Committee rush to hire staffers.

After watching from the sidelines as Clinton beat up on Obama, top McCain advisers say the Republican nominee faces the likelihood of a revitalized rival who will quickly seek to unify his party and to tap the obvious energy among Democratic activists and donors.

McCain advisers concede the battle for the White House will play out in a political environment that is terrible for Republicans: Gas and food prices are high, economic anxiety runs deep, Bush is pushing an unpopular war, and 80 percent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track.

Those advisers say the long Democratic battle has exposed serious weaknesses for Obama, especially among blue-collar voters, and provided a road map for questioning the nominee's lack of experience and judgment during the general election.

"They have to quickly define him as being inexperienced, not up to the task of leading the country," said Kevin Madden, who served as the spokesman for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

With the help of the Republican National Committee, McCain's operation aims to portray Obama as weak and naive on foreign policy, with questionable judgment on big issues.

They will call him a liberal who is out of the mainstream on issues such as taxes and guns. They will question his record on bipartisanship and cast him as an elitist who cannot identify with the problems of middle America.

"The things Obama has said have hardly been mainstream; they're been very far to the left," said Frank Donatelli, the deputy chairman for the RNC. "It's fair to say he's the heir to George McGovern and Michael Dukakis: an elitist liberal who draws his support from college towns and urban centers and doesn't have much reach beyond those."

Central to the McCain attack will be an effort to portray Obama as a "talker" with no record to back up his claims as a reformer or a post-partisan politician. McCain's supporters will attempt to contrast Obama's brief record in the Senate with examples of McCain's efforts to buck his party on immigration, torture, judges and climate change.

The campaign is focused on states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

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