Raleigh, N.C.– As a fellow Washington veteran running up against a young, fairly inexperienced candidate in a surprisingly close race, I thought Sen. Elizabeth Dole might have some perspective on what John McCain can do to change the game tonight. “I think he’s probably got to be a little more forceful, aggressive, and passionate,” she said, but declined to say on which points, except that she thinks the experience message remains important. “The most important job of the President of the United States is serving as Commander-In-Chief. There’s just no question that that kind of experience matters.” Everyone’s trying to answer that question today, except for Ana Marie Cox and Tucker Carlson, who have both rightly observed that any attempt by McCain to regain the momentum in this race would be self-evidently racist:
Ana Marie Cox: This is the $55 million dollar question. ($55M being about what McCain has left to spend on the campaign.) I am not sure if there’s anything McCain can do to leverage a good debate performance into come-from-behind momentum. At best, he could change the narrative or make news (which doesn’t necessarily change the narrative). I think his best bet is to somehow highlight one of the areas of nagging concern about Obama that will resonate even with those that like him: His arrogance or presumption, his apparent ease with power. But of course that would be racist. Tucker Carlson: I agree with Ana on both points: There’s virtually nothing McCain can do to change what seems like the inevitable course of the election. Debates are always oversold as decisive moments, I think. Plus, at this point it would be racist for McCain even to try to win the election. Only Obama can stop his own campagin at this point.
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