Competing views on the right.



Ron Bonjean, longtime Republican communications guru, writes in The Arena that it's the perfect way to broaden the debate:

Brilliant positioning. Senator McCain now looks presidential by putting politics aside during this major financial crisis. Suspending the campaign really plays to his “Country First” theme and allows him to project big picture thinking. Americans are very concerned about the economy and their own pocketbooks. If McCain continued to spar with Obama on the economy, he wouldn’t gain any traction. In fact, it was a losing fight because voters see the back-and-forth mudslinging as politics as usual when our nation is in a dire financial situation.



What is fascinating about this move is that it now allows McCain to position himself as a leader and Senator Obama to seem ambitious. It also shows Obama doesn’t understand the severity of this crisis. The McCain camp lost their momentum last week. This changes the subject away from economic specifics and generates momentum towards McCain’s strong suit of patriotism and sacrifice.





Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor at National Review, thinks there are grave political and policy risks:

If Senator McCain believes that he can help to enact a plan that can stabilize the markets and lay the foundation for future growth, then suspending the campaign and going to Washington was the right thing to do.



But it is hard to see what McCain can do to help, and easy to see how his intervention could hurt. He brings, as he himself has admitted in the past, no expertise to the table. And won't Democrats be less likely to cooperate on a plan if doing so will help make McCain be the hero of the hour?



So McCain's move may have been a mistake on substance. It may prove to be a political mistake too: If McCain can't bring both parties together in an economic crisis after staking so much on it, won't voters draw adverse conclusions about his leadership ability?

comments closed

permalink