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Where Noonan Leads, McCain Follows?
New buzz from "McCainland," as Campbell Brown put it on her show last night: Apparently John McCain is seriously mulling a pledge to serve only one term if elected president. McCampaign manager Rick Davis coyly wouldn't rule it out last weekend on "Fox News Sunday," instead directing attention to the Republican National Convention as a possible site for such an announcement ("Chris, you're going to have to come to the Republican convention").
Maybe it's just because it's August and people are getting tired of discussing possible VPs and/or methods of announcing a VP, but this has become buzzy this week — though, actually, it's something that Peggy Noonan suggested back in April:
It seems to me it would be a brilliant thing for him to announce he means to be a one-term president, that he means to have a clean, serious, one-term presidency in which he will do things those under pressure of re-election do not and cannot do. This would be received as a refreshment, a way out for the voters in a year they seem to want a way out. For many in the middle it would be a twofer. You get a good man, for only four years, and Mr. Obama gets to grow and deepen. He'll be better older.
Yes, McCain reportedly flirted with the one-term pledge when he kicked off his campaign, but that was before he knew who his opponent would be. The one-term pledge is a sort of brilliant ploy to appease those on the fence who worry that Obama is too young or, you know, "we don't really know him." Noonan herself has advanced those memes in her columns, for example this glowing bio-column of McCain from March 2007 ("No one in modern national-level politics has a better life story than his") and her piece on wondering about Obama's patriotism ("[W]hat about Obama and America? Who would have taught him to love it, and what did he learn was loveable, and what does he think about it all?") (McCain, said Noonan, carried that patriotism "in his bones"). The latter Noonan column correctly identified a gap in knowledge about Obama, even if it utterly failed to consider the introduction to his famous Race Speech a month before, where he spoke of his family lineage across race and color and geography, and marveled that only in a country like America would his rise be possible. (People do tend to forget that the race speech kicked off with patriotism, which the Obama campaign has erred in not emphasizing.)
Back to McCain: Is this really a possibility? On CNN last night, Brown suggested that the one-term move "could be the jolt his campaign needs," and correspondent Ed Henry agreed, saying that while some advisers pooh-pooh the move, "other advisers" say that it is being seriously considered. But does this strategy really make sense? Wrote Noonan in April: "The downside? Americans like knowing they can fire a president. It's how they keep them in line. And lame-duckness from day one would not be empowering."
That was McCain's original reason for ruling it out; today, though, the argument is, does he even need to? Noonan sees the campaign winds blowing in his direction, and pundits all seemed to enjoy pointing out that Obama's trip abroad didn't really give him much of a bounce in the polls. Meanwhile, the sudden focus on energy issues plus the Russian/Georgian war have both served as pegs to hang a 'corner-turning moment' meme on (or, per Jon Stewart, a 3 a.m. phone call meme). So it seems a bit early for McCain to hamstring himself with such a pledge. It does seem clear that the coy non-denial by Davis — in addition to the not-as-coy off-the-rec words of the 'advisers' talking to people like Henry — are all meant to test the waters and see what kind of bounce they might indicate. It also seems clear that they consider McCain's age a real issue, however McCain might laugh it off and point to his 96-year old grandmother.
I couldn't help but find something funnily prescient in Noonan from elsewhere though, from back in her March 2007 column:
What is his promise, his potential? It's that he's John McCain. In a changing world, he is a constant. He's earned it. His promise is that he's Moe Greene — he made his bones when the rest of them were out chasing cheerleaders.
This column was written well before Obama was even considered a possibility, so props to Noonan for anticipating the epid struggle between the young upstart and the old hand. But here's the thing: In that particular struggle, I don't think you want to be the one compared to Moe Greene.
While McCain Watches [WSJ]
The View From Gate 14 [WSJ]
Political Cycles [WSJ]
How McCain Got Dinged [WSJ]
Related:
Jonathan Martin: McCain chief won't rule out one-term pledge [Politico]
Related/Anticipated:
Disclaimer About Citing Peggy Noonan [Swampland]
Related/Cinematic:
An Offer Moe Greene Couldn't Refuse [The Godfather]
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Huffington Post | Rachel Sklar | August 14, 2008 02:19 PM