In my column
today, I make the case that President Bush deserves credit for
keeping America safe from terrorist attacks on U.S. soil for nearly
seven years, and that John McCain would benefit from making this
point regularly. While the conventional view is that McCain needs
to run as far away from Bush as possible, the reality is that he'll
be associated with Bush anyway, so he should at least defend the
successful aspects of Bush's legacy.
While Bill Clinton was more popular than Bush, in 2000 Al Gore
faced a similar problem to McCain, because there was "Clinton
fatigue" and the administration was tainted by scandals. Gore
decided to run away from Clinton, but this ended up backfiring in
many ways. Bush was still able to gain traction for vowing to
"restore dignity to the White House" because Gore became associated
with all of the bad stuff, but Gore became disassociated with all
of the positive aspects of the Clinton years, such as the strong
economy.
McCain has a trickier task, to be sure, but I think there are
some lessons from the Gore experience.
Also, I'd add that if McCain did forcefully defend the Bush
Administration's record on terrorism, it would help him energize
conservatives.
topics:
John McCain, Bill Clinton, Oil
