Will the Real John McCain Please Stand Up?

Will the Real John McCain Please Stand Up?


While desperation may be a strategy for high reality TV ratings, it’s not if you’re running for President. Let’s just hope the McCain camp is listening.

I first met Sen. John McCain a year ago, as a reporter covering the 2007 New Hampshire Presidential Primary for CNN. Not surprisingly, McCain’s focus, as it should have been, was rebuilding momentum for a campaign many had considered short of dead. As the Republican underdog, he was in for a fight, up against well-funded powerhouses Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson-- Remember them?? Seemingly comfortable in this position, McCain’s strategy consisted of a simple, scrappy, no-holds-bar approach: Let McCain Be McCain.

And so from August to January, McCain did what he knew best, banking his campaign on a win in New Hampshire, while committing himself to honest answers and no bull. This was the guy, after all, who told autoworkers in Detroit and mill workers in New Hampshire’s North Country that their jobs “weren’t coming back.” In turn, he gained credibility and respect—even from those who disagreed with him. Town hall meeting after another, his “Straight-Talk Express” zigzagged the state championing an unpopular war and a crusade against Washington spending and special interests. At his best, McCain cracked jokes, called voters (and reporters) “little jerks,” while simultaneously asking audiences to challenge him. “I’m now ready for your questions, comments and insults,” he’d state before every voter Q & A. Despite long days of exhaustive campaigning, his exuberance carried through the camera lens.

McCain employed a similar approach for the traveling press, answering question after question often to the exhaustion of reporters. One day, after three hours of questioning, myself and a few other reporters acknowledged we had no further questions. Without missing a beat, McCain looked down at my engagement ring and launched into his own love story (to Cindy), his top picks for Honeymoon destinations and wedding planning advice. Evidently, no topic was off limits.

Fast-forward ten months later and the McCain of the primaries is nowhere to be found. With subsequent victories came additional staff, additional strategies, and additional bureaucracies anathema to the original McCain mantra. Straight talk replaced with crooked, convoluted answers, or worse, misrepresentation of truth, facts and figures. Long gone are the days of open access and invited Q&As. The very strategies that propelled McCain to the top are now considered too risky at this stage of the game.

Most jarring are the visual cues of a candidate constrained to a foolish strategy of pandering to his Party’s conservative base. At the first presidential debate, Friday, the Republican presidential nominee, who promised to carry on a “civil debate”, barely acknowledged his opponent, instead choosing to grit his teeth and grin a controlled, sarcastic smile while shaking his head in frustration at the Illinois Senator. Cheap shots—“He doesn’t get it,” were muttered repeatedly. Already known for his temper, McCain played the character of grumpy old man. Today’s poll numbers suggest his performance resonated with viewers. No Hollywood make-up artist could cover up McCain’s desperation.

With thirty-seven days until Election Day, McCain’s strategy is in need of a dramatic overhaul. Simply put, he needs to get back to basics. McCain has excelled on character, heroism, humility, honor and candor-- all traits Americans identify with on the most fundamental level. But by constraining his voice (and Sarah Palin’s for that mater), he has let an antiquated Republican machine take control of his race. Trapped between accommodating multiple voices, McCain has lost site of the most important one-- his own.