Inessentials

The issue about the on-going Democratic primary that gets the most attention is whether the dragged-out primary is destroying the Democratic Party. I have no strong feeling on that matter. It has up-sides and down. I do think, however, the McCain campaign is doing a really, really smart thing in the meanwhile.

First, McCain gives a speech on global warming. A bizarre policy push from a person who has done little to nothing in the past and has nothing more than an incentive-based policy to offer? Yes, but it separates him from George W. Bush and makes him look like a uniter, “reaching out across the aisle,” as they say. Second, he says he expects troops to be back by 2013. This is a clear policy reversal from the man who claimed American troops might be in Iraq forever. But there can be no charges of flip-flopping since no one is paying too close attention, and any uproar will have died out over the next six months. Also, 2013 is after the 2012 election, so not a single troop would have to be back as he runs for re-election. Very smart. Third, the steady stream of stories showing McCain’s personal ties to lobbyists (this one is most recent, but there are many more), which go directly against his public image, sit idly while the media covers the Democrats taking parting shots at each other.

The presidential election is now less than six months away, and McCain has plenty of time to pick poll-friendly policy positions out of thin air and adopt them as his own with little questioning. It’s a good time to be a McCainiac.