McCain Makes Some Noise

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Launched in conjunction with today's speech in Ohio, McCain's new web ad, "2013," focuses on what he envisions achieving during his first term in the White House.

Here's Holly Bailey with a report from the McCain roadshow.

With the fight over the Democratic nomination still getting most of the attention, John McCain hasn't been making much news lately-and he seems fine with it. The all but official Republican presidential nominee has been touring the country raising money and giving speeches that don't tread much in the way of new stuff. Visiting the Northwest earlier this week on an environmental tour, McCain mostly rehashed positions we already know--namely that, contrary to President Bush, he strongly believes climate change is a big issue that needs to be dealt with. It's a revelation that isn't exactly breaking news to most of those who follow McCain regularly, but it did generate lots of coverage in the local news, which is what his campaign seems to be aiming for these days.

But the pendulum will no doubt swing back McCain's way thanks to a speech the senator is set to give this morning in the all important swing state of  Ohio. Speaking before a local business group in Columbus, the Arizona senator will talk about how he believes the world will be in 2013, the year he might be entering his second term in the White House. It's a speech full of big time promises: that he'll be bipartisan, that he'll give weekly news conferences, that he wants to go before Congress and take questions regularly (town hall, anyone?) and in a dig at the Bush administration, he'll admit his mistakes. "When we make errors, I will confess them readily, and explain what we intend to do to correct them," McCain will say, according to excerpts provided by his campaign. But the big headline here will no doubt be that he sees a world in 2013 in which Iraq is stable and most of the troops are home. Here's the key paragraph, as released by the campaign:

"By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced. Civil war has been prevented; militias disbanded; the Iraqi Security Force is professional and competent; al Qaeda in Iraq has been defeated; and the Government of Iraq is capable of imposing its authority in every province of Iraq and defending the integrity of its borders. The United States maintains a military presence there, but a much smaller one, and it does not play a direct combat role."

The key phrase here is this is how McCain "would hope to have achieved," so it's far from written in stone. But it's still a pretty notable statement for a guy who tends not to go into specifics of troop withdrawals from Iraq. The distinction in what McCain appears to be backing and what Democrats have advocated is that he'll bring the troops home by winning, as opposed to just simply bringing them home by the end of his first term.

Big picture: the speech is a preview, in part of how McCain will run against Barack Obama this fall. Already, McCain and his aides have sought to portray Obama as a guy gifted with the ability to give a soaring beautiful speech but who lacks substance. "There aren't very many specifics coming out of the Obama campaign," Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who is now advising McCain on economic issues, tells Newsweek. "John McCain has far more specifics out there about what he's really going to do."

McCain can talk all day about what he'll do, but what he'll actually get done is a different story. Today's speech doesn't explicitly say but acknowledges, as McCain often does, that if he wins in November he'll be working with a very Democratic, likely very hostile, Congress. "I am presumptuous enough to think I would be a good President, but not so much that I believe I can govern by command. Should I forget that, Congress will, of course, hasten to remind me," McCain says. "I will focus all the powers of the office; every skill and strength I possess; and seize every opportunity to work with members of Congress who put the national interest ahead of partisanship, and any country in the world that shares our hopes for a more peaceful and prosperous world." That's a lofty statement--but the bigger question is how McCain will make it happen.