"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Of Mavericks And Mad Hows

by West Virginia Rebel

John McCain as a Republican version of Howard Dean?

Among the Dean campaign’s problems was that, as it inched ever closer to the nomination, it had to grow up. The maturity and savvy of their strategy had to equal their size. It didn’t. And we’re seeing the same problems in the McCain campaign. In 2000, McCain got pretty far by being a whole lot of fun. In 2008, he won by being human where Romney was robotic, and capable where Huckabee was entertaining. But while that may get you some good press coverage, and let you slip through a weak field, it’s not enough to carry you through a general election. Stunts like this are cute, but they reflect the McCain campaign’s broader problem: They just don’t know what to do with their campaign. They don’t know what message to offer, or advantage to play up, or attack to levy. They don’t know how to counter the Obama campaign’s capacity to control the new cycle and set their own narrative.

In this case, if we’re to compare this election with the 2004 Democratic primaries, Obama is probably closer to Howard Dean-think Dean without the nuttiness factor. But if Obama is coming across as a sane version of Howard Dean, then McCain seems like a lackluster John Kerry-a sourpuss who can’t seem to gain traction and who is running against the national mood. When he won the Republican nomination, John McCain said, “Now the real work begins.” I wish he’d meant it.

Comments

Posted by on 07/24/08 at 08:54 PM from

Ugh, this is the problem of trying to compare this election to past ones.  You end up trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.  This post is a prime example of this phenomenon.  Obama as Howard Dean? I thought he was like Kennedy, or Reagan, or Lincoln… McCain as John Kerry?  I thought he was Bob Dole, or Bush III, or Eisenhower...you get the picture. 

Let’s accept that this is a very unique election, and that it’s difficult to try and draw any conclusions from past elections.  You know, it’s this unpredictability that makes it interesting in the first place.

Posted by on 07/25/08 at 07:46 AM from

But if Obama is coming across as a sane version of Howard Dean, then McCain seems like a lackluster John Kerry-a sourpuss who can’t seem to gain traction and who is running against the national mood.

Um, Obama has the media in his pocket and they control the news cycle. You can’t compare McCain to Kerry because in ‘04 Kerry had the media in his pocket and still lost. If anything McCain is closer to Bob Dole than anyone IMHO.

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