College Republican Federation of Virginia

Two recent articles in the WaPo, one today by Brent Bozell and one Sunday by Greg Anrig of the Century Foundation give two equally wrong answers to the same question: why does John McCain’s presidential campaign seem to be spinning its wheels while the Obama campaign seems to be floating on a cloud?

 Anrig begins immediately by blaming conservatism, saying how backwards it is, how it’s nothing but catchy phrases covering up dubious policies aimed at making the few richer and the rest poorer.  Then, again typical of the left, Anrig confirms what conservatives have known for years, that liberals don’t really comprehend conservatism in the first place. 

He launches into the same tired diatribe about how conservative policies aren’t a panacea, how conservatives’ trust in individuals is somehow responsible for government’s incompetence, especially of late.  That Anrig forgets the incompetence of governments past is telling, but then again typical of the left.  He finally comes around to saying that McCain’s campaign is faltering because it is sticking to a conservative ideology which, Anrig claims, has finally been found out to be a fraud by the public.

He is wrong of course, but that never stopped a good liberal.  Despite the fact that most conservatives would be surprised to learn that John McCain is now one of them, Anrig is still doesn’t get it.  McCain isn’t running a conservative campaign, just read his policies on immigration and energy.  His campaign has so departed from the orthodoxy of Buckley and Limbaugh that many movement conservative will be holding their noses as they go to the polls in November.   Certainly, his platform has conservative elements, especially on national security, but it is far from the embodiment of the Gospels of Ronald and Barry.

Enter Bozell, who points out exactly that.  He decries McCain’s attempt to become the Apostate President, stating:

Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts led to the greatest peacetime economic boom in our nation’s history. Fact. Reagan’s foreign and national defense policies led to the defeat of the Soviet empire. Fact. Most elements of the conservative social agenda continue to enjoy overwhelming national support. Fact.

Add this: It’s not 1980.  Fact.  The public is angry over Bush’s mistaking small government for incompetent government.  Fact.  They blame conservatives.  Fact.  Bozell’s problem isn’t new on the right, it’s been happening since before the primaries, and it has the same answer.  The conservative movement has an image problem, it may be undeserved, but it’s real.  It must rehabilitate that image.  The only way to rehabilitate that image is to prove that conservatives can run government effectively.  The image problem cannot be corrected by someone who is “in-house”, but rather by someone from the outside.  McCain is that someone.

Bozell fails to understand that John McCain is the only Republican with any credibility in the eyes of the public.  He fails to understand that because of the right’s bad image, any candidate waving a the Reagan flag will be instantly discredited as being one of “them.”  McCain’s strength, the reason Obama’s celebrity can’t produce more than a single-digit lead, is that he’s not seen as one of “them.” 

If McCain abandons his maverick persona and becomes just another right-winger, he is doomed.  And the “rally-the-base” strategy is irrelevant, because the base is too small.  Less than 30% of the country identifies itself as Republican.  McCain must blaze a new trail if he is to become President, by demonstrating to the public that he can push above partisan bickering and do the things government is supposed to do, do them well, and trust in the American people to take care of the rest.