McCain: Is he ready for Obama?

How do you compete with a rock star? That’s essentially the challenge now vexing John McCain, said Steve Huntley in the Chicago Sun-Times. With the Democrats’ bruising nomination battle finally over, the differences between the GOP’s standard-bearer and Barack Obama have become glaringly apparent. For the moment, at least, a “rapturous” nation seems downright giddy about the prospect of electing its first black president, one endowed with youth, vigor, and “soaring oratory.” By contrast, the 71-year-old McCain has been looking somewhat wan. His performance at a thinly attended New Orleans rally last week was typical. He smiled mechanically, “stepped on the applause lines,” and left the stage abruptly. McCain is banking on his fabled crossover appeal, but Obama fever is so “infectious” that he’s the one who seems to be making bipartisan inroads. Poor McCain, said Kathleen Parker in the Orlando Sentinel. Next to the 46-year-old Obama, he comes across as a “grumpy ol’ granddad breaking up the keg party.”

And yet, McCain is still very much in this race, said Michael Barone in National Review Online. Despite the “Obamamania” that has gripped the mainstream media, polls show McCain more than holding his own, trailing Obama by just a few points nationally and looking especially strong in such battleground states as Ohio, New Hampshire, and Michigan. That the race is so tight isn’t all that surprising, said David Broder in The Washington Post. If the Democratic primaries taught us anything, it’s that Obama is not the juggernaut he once appeared to be. Having been battered by Hillary Clinton, “Obama limped into the nomination as a vulnerable and somewhat diminished politician.” By the end, he was on the defensive over his lack of foreign-policy experience, and his “sweeping reformist generalizations” left many average working Americans feeling that he was not in touch with their struggles or values.

Many of those voters could now be drawn to McCain, said Janet Daley in the London Telegraph. He’s not the orator Obama is, but he does come across as down-to-earth and direct. Moreover, McCain’s harrowing ordeal as a POW in Vietnam, where he was “unflinching in danger and courageous under fire,” may be one of the most compelling personal narratives in recent political history. Voters tend to “regard military bravery as an exemplar of virtue.” If this election comes down to “proven character and tested judgment,” McCain wins in a walk.

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Unfortunately for McCain, voters have other things on their minds, said Mark Halperin in Time. By far the two most important issues for Americans today are the economy and the war in Iraq. And on both of these, it’s not difficult for Obama to argue—as he does incessantly—that McCain offers nothing but a “third Bush term.” With a staggering 83 percent of Americans saying the U.S. is on the wrong track, McCain lately has tried to appropriate Obama’s “change” mantra. But it just doesn’t seem credible coming from somebody who has been in Washington for so long and who, frankly, “looks old.”

McCain can overcome those obstacles, said William Kristol in The New York Times, but not if he keeps running such a lackluster race. Until now, his message has been muddled and his stagecraft embarrassingly amateurish. But despite his floundering, a theme has started to emerge that could serve him, and the country, well: The nation is at war, and while Obama promises feel-good bromides such as “hope” and “healing,” McCain offers tested leadership we can trust. If McCain can manage to frame the election in those terms, then we’ll have a real race on our hands.