Fights and the Fighters Who Fight Them

At the risk of destroying space and time as we know it, I have to say Bill Kristol had some good advice for the McCain campaign today. Go back to what you do best, Kristol says to McCain. Drop the negative ads and be the happy warrior from 2000. Never mind that Kristol gave the opposite advice just seven days ago.

Let’s be frank; the silvery-haired white guy came into the contest with a built-in advantage — being a silvery-haired white guy. I suspect a whole lot of voters wanted to support him over Obama. The erratic, hateful, nearly substance-free campaign McCain has waged has driven people to Obama, however. And with just three weeks to go, isn’t it a bit late for a complete re-tool of the campaign?

It’s way early to begin the victory party, but if McCain loses in the landslide it’s shaping up to be, gonna be a whole lotta finger-pointing going on. At least, I hope it finally puts to rest the myth of Karl Rove’s political genius, as I believe Rove more than McCain is the one calling the shots in the Campaign to Nowhere.

But what’s really fascinating, in a morbid way, is watching the McCain campaign fire back at Kristol for similar criticism elsewhere — “he has bought into the Obama campaign’s party line.”

McCain debuted his “rebooted” campaign today. The Word of the Day is fight. Apparently in a speech today McCain used the word fight nearly 20 times. Here’s a bit:

I know what hopelessness feels like. It’s an enemy who defeats your will. I felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. I’m an American. And I choose to fight. Don’t give up hope. Be strong. Have courage. And fight. Fight for a new direction for our country. Fight for what’s right for America. Fight to clean up the mess of corruption, infighting and selfishness in Washington. Fight to get our economy out of the ditch and back in the lead. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all. Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. America is worth fighting for. Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

David Corn:

This new pitch doesn’t even qualify as a Hail Mary. It seems not substantial enough to rate as a real play. It’s as if McCain’s handlers did a focus group and found that the one word undecided voters associate positively with McCain is “fighter.” And that’s all McCain’s strategist have to work with.

And didn’t Hillary Clinton run with “I’m a fighter” for awhile? See where it got her.

The thing is, I believe most Americans feel they’ve already been fighting for quite some time. They’ve been fighting stagnant wages, rising prices, precarious health care, job losses, and in too many cases bankruptcies and foreclosures. They don’t need a leader who is going to lead them into a fight, because they’re already in it. And they’re tired of it. I think they want someone to bring back stability and put an end to the fighting. And it that’s a skinny black guy, so be it.