Daniel Henninger
Wall Street Journal Editorial
July 31, 2008
Is John McCain losing it?
On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security
"everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll
taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your
taxes. I won't."
This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation.
He got back to the subject Tuesday in Reno, Nev. Reporters asked about
the Sunday tax comments. Mr. McCain replied, "The worst thing you could
do is raise people's payroll taxes, my God!" Then he was asked about
working with Democrats to fix Social Security, and he repeated,
"everything has to be on the table." But how can . . .? Oh never mind.
Yesterday he was in Aurora, Colo., to wit: "On Social Security, he
[Sen. Obama] wants to raise Social Security taxes. I am opposed to
raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without
raising taxes."
What I'm asking is, does John McCain have the mental focus, the
intellectual discipline, to avoid being out-slicked by Barack Obama, if
he isn't abandoned by his own voters?
It's not just taxes. Recently the subject came up of Al Gore's
assertion that the U.S. could get its energy solely from renewables in
10 years. Sen. McCain said: "If the vice president says it's doable, I
believe it's doable." What!!?? In a later interview, Mr. McCain said he
hadn't read "all the specifics" of the Gore plan and now, "I don't
think it's doable without nuclear power." It just sounds loopy.
Then this week in San Francisco, in an interview with the Chronicle,
Sen. McCain called Nancy Pelosi an "inspiration to millions of
Americans." Notwithstanding his promises to "work with the other side,"
this is a politically obtuse thing to say in the middle of a campaign.
Would Bill Clinton, running for president in 1996 after losing control
of the House, have called Newt Gingrich an "inspiration"? House
Minority Leader John Boehner, facing a 10-to-20 seat loss in November,
must be gagging.
The one thing -- arguably the only thing -- the McCain candidacy has
going for it is a sense among voters that they don't know what Barack
Obama stands for or believes. Why then would Mr. McCain give voters
reason to wonder the same thing about himself? You're supposed to sow
doubt about the other guy, not do it to yourself.
Yes, Sen. McCain must somehow appeal to independents and blue-collar
Hillary Democrats. A degree of pandering to the center is inevitable.
But this stuff isn't pandering; it's simply stupid. Al Gore's own
climate allies separated themselves from his preposterous
free-of-oil-in-10-years whopper. Sen. McCain saying off-handedly that
it's "doable" is, in a word, thoughtless.
Speaker Pelosi heads a House with a 9% approval. To let her off the hook before the election reflects similar loss of thought.
The forces arrayed against Sen. McCain's candidacy are formidable: an
unpopular president, the near impossibility of extending Republican
White House rule for three terms, the GOP trailing in races at every
level, a listless fundraising base, doubtful sentiments about the war,
a flailing economy.
The generic Democratic presidential candidate should win handily.
Barack Obama, though vulnerable at the margin, is a very strong
candidate. This will be a turnout election. To win, Mr. McCain needs
every Republican vote he can hold.
Why make it harder than it has to be? Given such statements on Social
Security taxes, Al Gore and the "inspirational" Speaker Pelosi, is
there a reason why Rush Limbaugh should not spend August teeing off on
Mr. McCain?
Why as well shouldn't the Obama camp exploit all of this? If Sen.
Obama's "inexperience" is Mr. McCain's ace in the hole, why not trump
that by asking, "Does Sen. McCain know his own mind?"
In this sports-crazed country, everyone has learned a lot about what it
takes to win. They've heard and seen it proven repeatedly that to
achieve greatness, to win the big one, an athlete has to be ready to
"put in the work."
John McCain isn't doing that, yet. He's competing as if he expects the
other side to lose it for him. Sen. McCain is a famously undisciplined
politician. Someone in the McCain circle had better do some straight
talking to the candidate. He's not some 19-year-old tennis player who's
going to win the U.S. presidential Open on raw talent and the other
guy's errors. He's not that good.
There is a reason the American people the past 100 years elevated only
two sitting senators into the White House -- JFK and Warren Harding.
It's because they believe most senators, adept at compulsive
compromise, have no political compass and will sell them out. Now
voters have to do what they prefer not to. Yes, Sen. McCain has honor
and country. Another month of illogical, impolitic remarks and Sen.
McCain will erase even that. Absent a coherent message for voters, he
will be one-on-one with Barack Obama in the fall. He will lose.
