What McCain Should Do, Vol II: The 'Bulworth' Moment

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In the first installment of our new "What McCain Should Do" series--which seeks to bring you the smartest and savviest in unsolicited advice for the struggling Republican nominee--we highlighted Ross Douthat's plan for a "Bailout for Main Street." McCain should "announce that in light of the epic crisis, he's going to postpone his entire domestic agenda (such as it is) for, say, two years in favor of a short-term but expensive stimulus package aimed directly at the middle and working class," he wrote. Then "put as much energy into selling it as [he's] put into trying to rebrand Barack Obama as radical, vacuous, unready to lead."

Now, one week later, the candidate has done just that. Unfortunately for the GOP, the candidate we're referring to is Barack Obama, who's scheduled to unveil a new "Economic Rescue Plan for the Middle Class" this afternoon in Toledo, Ohio. Combining existing proposals with a handful of new ideas--a temporary tax credit for firms that create new jobs in the United States over the next two years; a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for any homeowners making good faith efforts pay their mortgages--Obama's "Main Street" bailout will likely solidify Obama's already sizable advantage on the economic policy front among worried middle-class voters.

It wasn't always going to be this way. In fact, McCain was reportedly planning to "roll out new proposals this week that would be aimed at restoring confidence in financial markets and encouraging investors to return." On Sunday, close adviser Sen. Lindsey Graham even appeared on CBS's Face the Nation to announce that McCain would soon launch “a very comprehensive approach to jump-start the economy, by allowing capital to be formed easier in America by lowering taxes." But hours later a meeting at headquarters during which aides presented McCain with 30 options for new economic measures collapsed under the weight of "internal confusion," according to the New York Times--and plans for an economic policy push were put on the shelf.

So now it's back to the drawing board. Our first and, so far, favorite suggestion appears on this morning's Times op-ed page, where William Kristol--who previously told Sarah Palin that McCain should hammer on Obama's relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr.--proposes that McCain engineer what we'll hereby refer to as a "Bulworth Moment." In the eponymous 1998 film, California Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (Warren Beatty) decides, having reached the end of his political life, that he might as well say whatever's on his mind--a move that makes him an instant media darling and revives his flagging campaign. Kristol's plan for McCain is strikingly similar:

It’s time for John McCain to fire his campaign. He has nothing to lose. His campaign is totally overmatched by Obama’s... The McCain campaign, once merely problematic, is now close to being out-and-out dysfunctional. Its combination of strategic incoherence and operational incompetence has become toxic. If the race continues over the next three weeks to be a conventional one, McCain is doomed...

The 2008 campaign is now about something very big — both our future prosperity and our national security. Yet the McCain campaign has become smaller. What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over. Shut down the rapid responses, end the frantic e-mails, bench the spinning surrogates, stop putting up new TV and Internet ads every minute. In fact, pull all the ads — they’re doing no good anyway. Use that money for televised town halls and half-hour addresses in prime time. And let McCain go back to what he’s been good at in the past — running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate. Palin should follow suit. The two of them are attractive and competent politicians. They’re happy warriors and good campaigners. Set them free.

Provide total media accessibility on their campaign planes and buses. Kick most of the aides off and send them out to swing states to work for the state coordinators on getting voters to the polls. Keep just a minimal staff to help organize the press conferences McCain and Palin should have at every stop and the TV interviews they should do at every location. Do town halls, do the Sunday TV shows, do talk radio — and invite Obama and Biden to join them in some of these venues, on the ground that more joint appearances might restore civility and substance to the contest...

McCain should stop unveiling gimmicky proposals every couple of days that pretend to deal with the financial crisis. He should tell the truth — we’re in uncharted waters, no one is certain what to do, and no one knows what the situation will be on Jan. 20, 2009. But what we do know is that we could use someone as president who’s shown in his career the kind of sound judgment and strong leadership we’ll need to make it through the crisis...

At Wednesday night’s debate at Hofstra, McCain might want to volunteer a mild mea culpa about the extent to which the presidential race has degenerated into a shouting match. And then he can pledge to the voters that the last three weeks will feature a contest worthy of this moment in our history. He’d enjoy it. And he might even win it.

My take? The Bulworth strategy is undeniably attractive. There's no doubt that a "Mac is Back" plot twist would reconnect McCain with his once-powerful "maverick" brand, remind voters of why they liked him in the first place and appeal to pundits bored with the current "Obama Landslide" storyline. But there are two problems.

First, there's no halfway here; it's all or nothing. McCain and Co. have already signaled that they'd like to reclaim the maverick mantle, sending the candidate out this morning in Virginia Beach to deliver a new, uplifting stump speech that ditches the swipes at Obama's character in favor of sweeping statements about honor, valor, fighting for your country and the like (plus a morsel of anti-Bush rhetoric). "The national media has written us off," McCain said. "Senator Obama is measuring the drapes... But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them. What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her." But a speech--especially a speech that reprises much of McCain's convention address--isn't enough. To actually break through--to actually get credit for "changing course"--McCain has to do something daring: shut down his rapid response unit, scrap the ads, talk to reporters, etc. Right now, it's unclear that the candidate is willing to put everything on the line. Until he does, small shifts around the edges--a loftier speech, for example--will strike the press and the public as nothing more than maneuvering for a day's worth of friendly PR.

That said, if McCain does pull a full Bulworth, he could run into the opposite problem. For weeks now, Team Obama has sought to frame McCain's every move--from his bailout-related campaign "suspension" to his recent mortgage proposal--as evidence of some sort of essential "erraticness." Wouldn't Kristol's drastic suggestion--he's essentially telling McCain to liquidate his campaign with 22 days to go--simply present Obama with yet another opportunity to ask voters whether this is the guy they want steering the ship of state through the current financial storm? Who knows how a Bulworth Moment would play out--whether McCain's boldness would outweigh Obama's steadiness, or vice versa. But it seems safe to say that McCain would be taking the biggest risk in the history of modern presidential politics. Then again, Obama is leading by nearly 200 electoral votes and outspending and outstumping his Republican rival in the battleground states by a two-to-one margin. Which may mean for McCain that the only thing riskier than scrapping the campaign is letting it continue as is.

Thoughts? Amendments? Disagreements? Ad hominem attacks? The comments are all yours.