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.