McCain Seeks Center-Right Voters, Annoying Conservatives
When George Bush ran for president in 2000 and 2004, he and Karl Rove, his political guru, had a very definite election plan that featured getting as many conservatives as possible to the polls.
But the Washington Times reports that Sen. John McCain knows that this strategy won't work for him, so he has taken a completely different route - trying to pick up as many independents and right-wing Democrats (the return of Reagan Democrats?) as he can.
"This time, we are working to get a larger share than normal of independents and conservative Democrats, mainly because our own base is narrower than four years ago," said McCain campaign senior adviser Charles Black, who has been a part of every GOP presidential campaign since Ronald Reagan's nomination run in 1976 ....
Noting there are more Democrats and independents up for grabs than in recent elections, Frank J. Donatelli, the Republican National Committee's deputy chairman, says Mr. McCain needs a center-right coalition to win, just as the Democrat will need a center-left coalition. "We intend to beat them to the center," he said.
This strategy has some dangers, the Times reports. His more centrist positions on some issues will "inevitably will rub orthodox conservatives the wrong way and worsen his relations with them."
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul don't look all that eager to switch their support to McCain. (Paul is still officially running for president, don't forget.)
Last weekend in Nevada, 600 well-organized Paul supporters out-maneuvered McCain operatives and "engineered a rule change that permitted national convention delegates to be nominated from the floor, wresting the task from party leaders." When it looked like things weren't going their way, state party officials suddenly called off the session, saying it would take too long to complete.
Paul has said he's taking his message all the way to the national convention in Minneapolis. Could be an interesting gathering after all.
(By the way, Paul was the only member of Congress yesterday - House and Senate -- to vote against a bill that would protect people's genetic information from being used against them in applying for jobs or getting health insurance.)
---
UPDATE: Another reason McCain wants to move away from the Bush conservative strategies of the past is that a new CNN/Opinion Research polls shows that Bush is "the most unpopular president in modern times, even falling below Richard Nixon at his nadir.
9:27 AM ET | 05- 2-2008 | permalink
