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The Next Right: A Non-Ayers, Non-Wright Strategy for McCain

It's up to McCain to elevate the role of President to a place where Obama won't go and can't reach. In a time of financial turmoil, McCain needs to drive home the point that now is not the time for conventional, irresponsible, and petty political promises, like a massive socialization of the health care industry or increasing funding for the alphabet soup of government agencies. Sorry, but this also means that tax cuts are probably off the table too -- as well as tax increases that would steal resources from the private economy when they're needed most. Explicitly, McCain should make the case that America can't afford another party-line President, and that he'd be a post-partisan leader who would steer us through a time of turmoil.

The Keating attack is actually an opportunity to drive home McCain's sense of self-sacrifice. Though McCain was cleared of wrongdoing, he can make the point that this is what drove him to become a political reformer and a thorn in the side of his fellow Republicans. Told right, this story of redemption could break the dials tomorrow night. It also fits into the broader frame of service vs. selfishness. Obama thinks only about himself, and didn't change his ways when a greedy real estate developer sought to buy him off. McCain had an awakening when the same thing happened to him.

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