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Agree to Disagree

Norman Leahy

I never thought we'd get here.

To the political conventions, I mean. The time when the faithful gather to ratify the primary results, wear more buttons and funny hats than they should and practice their skills at looking excited as yet another speaker mounts the podium to tell them how critical this moment/candidate/issue is to the future of our Republic.

Meanwhile, out in the heartland, everyone else is watching another episode of "Deadliest Catch."

Aside from any glaring verbal stumbles anyone may make (and with Joe Biden around, that could be any moment now), no real news will come out of either convention. Those days are long gone.   Instead, we have highly sanitized, highly scripted infomercials for the candidates and their parties. And not very compelling ones at that.

Yes the visuals will be stunning. Yes, the enthusiasm for the spectacle is high among political junkies. And certainly, the cable news talking heads are excited, some embarrassingly so (I'm looking at you, Keith Olbermann).

But putting the circuses aside, what do the candidates need to accomplish between now and November?

Senator Obama needs to do a couple of things immediately: 1) Stop the bleeding. The diehards among Hillary Clinton's supporters are sporting McCain buttons -- at the convention! He needs to get them on his side right away; 2) Develop a message beyond "hope." Hope is nice. Hope is good. But it makes for a lousy campaign slogan, let alone campaign platform. Sens. Obama and Biden need to move beyond the gauziness of the last few months and get specific on what direction they intend to lead the country, if elected. Right now, it seems all they have in mind is a teach-in. And Bubba won't vote for that.

The Republicans face a different set of circumstances. Saddled with a Bush hangover, a creaking economy and a nominee who has made a career out of thumbing his nose at conservatives, Republicans have multiple challenges ahead and no clear path around them.

They are fortunate in that the Democrats seem just as clueless.  

But this vacuum has to be filled and filled quickly. Here is some advice for Sen. McCain:

Pick a solid conservative as your running mate. Eric Cantor would be an interesting pick -- young, good on the issues (most of the time) and a prodigious fundraiser. He's one of the only stars in an otherwise dim and embarrassing GOP House caucus. If he says no, ask Jim DeMint or Tom Coburn -- they are heroes on the Right and would bring the base out in droves in November. Read a basic economics textbook in your spare time. Admitting you don't know much about economics was honest, to be sure. But considering the economic turmoil the nation faces, we cannot endure an economic illiterate in the White House. Time to start cramming. Hammer away on energy. Democrats are beholden to their environmental wing and thus oppose drilling for oil and gas here at home. The polls show this issue hurts them and you know it. Ride this issue for all it's worth, 'cause Bubba likes his truck, and you really need his vote. Become a champion of school choice. Even at their own convention, Democrats have taken swipes at the teachers' unions for standing in the way of even modest reforms. Go to the next level and say that every parent deserves the same educational choice Sen. Obama made for his daughters by enrolling them in a private school. The energy for school choice is there, waiting to be tapped. Now is the time to use it. Debate, debate, debate. Sen. Obama is a gifted teleprompter reader. His prepared texts soar. But without that text, he is as weak as can be. Get him to agree to as many debates as you can (after all, Senator, you excel at townhall-style events). The more often you get Obama away from his script, the greater your chances of success.

For all of his foibles, Sen. McCain is probably the only Republican who could have kept things close this far into the season. While that speaks as much to the weakness of the GOP field this year as anything else, it also shows that people see something in McCain.

But that something is still undefined. And McCain has only a brief time to crystallize that sentiment. All the more reason for him to come out of the convention as a happy warrior -- someone who understands the problems we face, but also knows that the nation's greatest days are still to come.

The list above encompasses some of the areas where he can make clear distinctions with Obama while offering a can-do, optimistic alternative.

Optimism wins elections. Ideas backed with specifics help seal the deal. If McCain can manage all three, he'll do just fine.

Norman Leahy is vice president for public affairs at Tertium Quids, a statewide, free market advocacy organization. He is a contributor to several Virginia political blogs, including Bacon's Rebellion, Sic Semper Tyrannis, Bearing Drift and NBC 12's Decision Virginia. A 2006 graduate of the Sorensen Institute, Norman and his family live in Henrico County.

Thad Williamson 

The saying used to go that every man knows how to grill a streak and coach a football team. Perhaps that saying needs to be updated: every liberal, in addition, knows how to run a presidential campaign.

 

That's the impression one gets from many recent commentaries about Barack Obama's campaign from quarters that are desperate for the Illinois senator to win. Those critics are worried that Obama isn't ahead by more, and fret that the Democrats will once-again let themselves get Swift-boated on the way to yet another narrow electoral defeat.

 

The anxiety is understandable, given what's at stake in the election. Moreover, the critics who say that Obama needs to be willing to hit harder at McCain and sharpen his economic message are exactly right.

 

That said, it would be very wrong for Democrats to hit the panic button.

 

First, if the election were held today, polls indicate he would almost certainly win an Electoral College majority, even if the popular vote were deadlocked. Over the past month Pollster.com has consistently shown Obama with at least 260 electoral votes in his corner compared to 176 for McCain, meaning he would need to pick up just one mid-sized toss-up state (such as Virginia) to put him over the top. Obama is still ahead and is still the frontrunner, albeit barely so.

 

Second, Obama chose wisely in picking Joe Biden as his running mate. Earlier in this space I endorsed Jim Webb as a good choice. Webb removed his name from consideration, but Biden has the same major plus Webb did: credibility and experience on foreign policy. Beyond this, Biden's famous sharp tongue and ample sense of self means he won't be cowed by Republican attacks and worry about trying to be Mr. Nice Guy.

 

Unlike John Edwards four years ago, Biden has no future presidential ambitions to protect either -- this is it for him, and it would be a major surprise and disappointment if he doesn't come on to the ticket swinging.

 

Third, Obama has shown signs last week of moving towards a more direct, populist appeal in his stops in Virginia. I attended the "town hall" at John Tyler Community College in Chester, where Obama and Tim Kaine stressed the issue of economic security and went after McCain hard for being out of touch after the wealthy Arizona senator acknowledged he doesn't know how many homes he owns. Obama also talked in a very practical way about health care, tax credits for the working poor, investments in green energy and mass transit and shifting resources from Iraq to domestic priorities. Obama needs to keep hammering away at those specifics, and keep raising the issue of whether Americans are better off than they were eight years ago.

 

Fourth, there is every reason to think that Obama will be both a more energetic campaigner and a better debater than McCain in the final two months of the campaign. While better command of issues does not guarantee making the most favorable impression during a debate (see Gore, Al, 2000), the debates will provide a clear-cut opportunity for Obama to present his differences with McCain in a compelling way.

 

Fifth, not to be underestimated is the bounce Obama may get from his Thursday night nomination speech. The sight of an African-American accepting the presidential nomination of a major party will be a hugely emotional, even cathartic experience for many Americans. So far in this campaign, Obama's speechmaking has been at its best when emotions have been at their peak -- after his victory in the Iowa Caucus, addressing the question of race and Rev. Wright in March, after clinching the nomination in June. Obama has the chance to both define his candidacy and define this race for a truly national audience, and it would be disappointing and surprising if he falls anything short of his compelling best.

 

This is a chance to seize the initiative, and Barack Obama had better take it and not let go. He needs to clearly spell out the sad shape America is in, explain they ways in which George Bush is responsible, explain how closely tied McCain and Bush are both politically and philosophically, and explain why he represents a crystal clear difference on every key area of policy.

 

Once he's done all that, he needs to use a firm hand in shaping the day-to-day and hour-to-hour agenda, and not let McCain or the media define the key storylines. Staying on target with the key campaign themes -- the economy, health care, energy, and Iraq -- while simultaneously beating down and beating back attacks from McCain and others on the right will not be easy, and it will be impossible if Obama lets himself (a la John Kerry) get put in the position of playing defense the next two months. Instead, Obama needs to force McCain to try to defend the indefensible, namely the record of George W. Bush and 8 years of Republican leadership in Washington.

 

Obama's selection of Joe Biden suggests he understands the nature of the fight ahead. That thought should relax worried liberals, at least a little.

 

Yet even when Obama and Biden slip up this fall, those worried liberals' best response should not be to whine about their candidates. It should be to get out there and do something to help the ticket win. That's especially true in a state like Virginia, a state which could plausibly tilt the entire election and where all signs point towards an exceedingly close race, in the manner of Jim Webb's razor-thin victory over George Allen in 2006.

 

Obama has poured very substantial resources into Virginia, including Richmond, creating an ample infrastructure to support grassroots volunteer efforts. Democrats who are serious about winning this time should be thinking not just about what the candidate should be doing to win the daily media wars, but what they can do to help the candidate.

Thad Williamson is an assistant professor of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond. After growing up in Chapel Hill, N.C., he earned his bachelor's degree at Brown University, a master's degree in theology from Union Theological Seminary (New York) and a doctorate in political science from Harvard University. He is the author of three books and has written on public affairs for numerous national publications.