McCain and the Economy

John McCain's unquestionably a popular figure, but David Kusnet is also surely right that it's hard to see him winning in bleak economic times if he keeps talking the way he was talking at his South Carolina victory speech. There's just nothing in there whatsoever to suggest that McCain has any awareness of anyone experiencing any kind of financial difficulties. What's more, I think it'll actually be quite hard for him to pivot in a more sympathetic direction. After all, throughout all his flipping and flopping and back again of the past ten years, the "cares about people in economic pain" persona is one he's never tried on. And I think he's never tried it on because it runs contrary to his entire schtick, which is all about finding causes greater than ourselves, salvation through nationalism, etc., etc. On some emotional level, he probably thinks a woman who needs to declare bankruptcy because the racked up massive credit card bills while her uninsured husband was dying of cancer should just grin and bear it the way he did as a POW.

After what he's been through, it's probably hard to muster a ton of sympathy for workaday problems. And yet that's what politics is all about. By the same token, though, I think it would be foolish to confidently predict economic conditions eleven months from now. Maybe things will get worse . . . maybe they'll turn around. But if they don't turn around, it does seem like potentially big trouble for McCain.

Photo courtesy of Victory NH

Comments

Fred Thompson just dropped out.

Posted by artappraiser | January 22, 2008 2:30 PM

Projecting empathy is not exactly a big problem when you're running against Hillary.

Mike

Posted by MBunge | January 22, 2008 2:36 PM

If the economy doesn't turn around, is there anyone in the incumbent party this won't be trouble for?

Posted by Royko | January 22, 2008 2:42 PM

It's not particulary difficult for Republicans to fool stupid voters. It happens all the time. If they can cover Clinton with enough slime, McCain's relative lack of empathy won't be such a big liability.

Posted by blah | January 22, 2008 2:42 PM

But if they don't turn around, it does seem like potentially big trouble for McCain.

Thank you. You've made my day. Go, recession!

Posted by Jim W | January 22, 2008 2:45 PM

On some emotional level, he probably thinks a woman who needs to declare bankruptcy because the racked up massive credit card bills while her uninsured husband was dying of cancer should just grin and bear it the way he did as a POW.

A bit extreme, no?

Anyway I don't get the argument about a bad economy being a big problem for McCain alone. A bad economy would be bad news for any GOP candidate (including MY favorite Mitt-man). Presumably McCain can get some decent advisors, and make some general noise about how much he cares for the hardworking average American and how he wants to reduce their taxes verses the wasteful "tax and spend" Democrats (or something like that).

Posted by 2cynicalbyhalf | January 22, 2008 2:46 PM

On some emotional level, he probably thinks a woman who needs to declare bankruptcy because the racked up massive credit card bills while her uninsured husband was dying of cancer should just grin and bear it the way he did as a POW.

MAN, is that true. That's my family. In 2001, while my grandmother was dying of Alzheimer's, my mom put the entire bill on the credit cards because Medicare only paid 80%. I tried my best to mitigate this burden, but in the end, it wasn't enough. She refinanced the whole thing onto the house to avoid bankruptcy. Now, the house is sinking into financial oblivion. This is a nightmare. My family never recovered from the last recession, contrary to the fairy tale talk by the Friedman-Greenspan types in government. I've realized that my story isn't uncommon. Indeed, it's everywhere.

Posted by Jake in Milwaukee | January 22, 2008 2:49 PM

There's just nothing in there whatsoever to suggest that McCain has any awareness of anyone experiencing any kind of financial difficulties.

What does this mean? After all, stated "We are facing challenging economic times." How does Hillary show she is "aware of" anyone experiencing any kind of financial difficulties?

Or is it just that "awareness of anyone experiencing any kind of financial difficulties" is the latest left-wing synonym for "advocates Democrat positions on tax and spending issues"?

Posted by Al | January 22, 2008 2:51 PM

For obvious reasons, it's usually not safe to assume that primary election rhetoric will be reproduced during the general - but McCain does seem fairly indifferent to economic worries in general. I imagine that his Senate record also includes plenty of votes that an opponent could cite to reinforce a public perception of indifference. He'll have to learn to fake it.

This is the one aspect in which Romney might be a slightly stronger candidate than McCain. Romney at least can blather about his executive experience, his can-do attitude, or whatever.

Posted by N | January 22, 2008 2:56 PM

I really hate your psychoanalysis, Matt. One might also imagine that someone would come out of the experience that McCain had in Vietnam as an angry, resentful, walled-off human being. But McCain is among the most approachable and funny of the presidential candidates.

It's fair enough to say that he doesn't seem to propose anything that would help anyone other than the top 5 percent. But that's not unique to Republicans who were POWs.

Posted by Elvis Elvisberg | January 22, 2008 3:02 PM

Or is it just that "awareness of anyone experiencing any kind of financial difficulties" is the latest left-wing synonym for "advocates Democrat positions on tax and spending issues"?

Yes, Al. See, "your jobs aren't coming back, sorry about that" might be a satisfying stump position if it was followed by "here are the testicles of the CEO who closed down the factory and walked away with millions of dollars".

Hack.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | January 22, 2008 3:20 PM

The thing is, McCain doesn't have to win over folks who've been paying attention during the last year. President McCain will be a reality if he wins over the majority of the 15% or so of the electorate.

If McCain establishes that he's more honest and authentic than, say, Hillary Clinton, through the summer, then whatever he says on the campaign trail in October 2008 will be taken at face value by those swing voters.

Clinton's retort -- likely an appeal to 90s nostalgia -- may be enough, but we can't expect that McCain will self-destruct.

Posted by Ryan | January 22, 2008 3:25 PM

Wow, Matt, I've got my issues with McCain but when you say you think that his concept is that the economically downtrodden are just supposed to soldier on -- or for that matter, even that soldiers under torture are just supposed to soldier on -- man, that's really cruddy of you. I just don't see that, and don't know where you're pulling it from. I _do_ think that, well, that stuff's not a priority for McCain, maybe not what he sees as the President's biggest job, not something he thinks about a lot -- and one can argue with all those points and indeed his lack of focus on economic issues might hurt him. But to argue, basically, that the guy has no empathy for people in dire straits seems unwarranted.

Posted by Sanjay | January 22, 2008 3:33 PM

I dunno. Presidential elections in this country are simply popularity contests. I wish it weren't true but 9 times out of ten it explains who wins. McCain is popular, Hillary Clinton much much less so. I'd be surprised if Hillary is able to win against him, issues be damned.

Posted by greg | January 22, 2008 3:37 PM

I see a lot of people piling on to Matt. It's fun to take on the host but before you get too slap happy I recommend you mosey on over to Krugmans blog where he notices who McCain is turning to for economic advice...
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/can-this-be-true/

Compassion is not McCain's strong suit. Hillary has him beat there, especially when she turns the debate to policy specifics for the economy. McCain will get his clock cleaned. Conservative policies are at all time lows in popular support. Huckabee had a clever way to get around that, McCain doesn't. His only ace is with the press who will lie for him for awhile and present his idea as 'bi-partizan'. But a campaign is a long time, too long to maintain that particular lie.

Posted by Northern Observer | January 22, 2008 3:55 PM

By the same token, though, I think it would be foolish to confidently predict economic conditions eleven months from now....if they don't turn around, it does seem like potentially big trouble for McCain.

Eleven months? Try two weeks.

Posted by right | January 22, 2008 4:25 PM

Here're some McCain lines that it might be useful to refresh people's memories about:

"Maybe I'm not paying attention to the poorest of America. Maybe my priorities are not correct."

That's about his 2000 tax cut proposal.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/h022400_1.shtml

Daily Howler has a wealth of stuff about the inconsistent "straight shooter". It would be good for any democratic candidate for us to start getting this out there now.

Posted by columbia | January 22, 2008 5:01 PM

John Hero McCain the Magnificent is funny. Did you hear his Chelsea joke? It was funny because she truly is ugly. This man is warm, people. He will crush the hated Hillary. Nobody likes that woman. Women will not turn out for her. It's a fact. And the economy is fine, just deal with it, you complainers. This is America. Your love for America is not strong enough.

And what are you going to do, raise taxes? Just cut the dang budget. Cut it already. Too much spending. There are thousands of things we could not spend money on. Nobody would mind. The money does nothing. It's so darn easy to just CUT. Too many cuts for me to list right now.

You liberals just don't get it. Long live John McMagnificent!!

Posted by Free Lover of Freedom and Free Liberty | January 22, 2008 5:48 PM

Sanjay, what Matt said is fundamental Conservative belief. If you think otherwise, my guess is that you are in one of those very rare enclaves where very moderate Republicans are predominant.

Posted by Frank Carmelo | January 22, 2008 5:55 PM

Anybody who thinks ANY politician has "compassion" for anybody, let alone poor people, is living in a dream world.

Hillary has compassion for her pocketbook and if Chelsea is lucky, maybe her daughter. That's about it.

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | January 22, 2008 6:54 PM

Back in the 90s at least McCain went on record as saying that the country needed some form of universal health coverage (though he's back-pedaled from that this year lest he betray The Party Line). His wingnut detractors occasionally throw that out as an argument against him.

Posted by JonF | January 22, 2008 7:16 PM

On some emotional level, he probably thinks a woman who needs to declare bankruptcy because the racked up massive credit card bills while her uninsured husband was dying of cancer should just grin and bear it the way he did as a POW.

In the 3 1/2 Decades McCain has milked his POW-hood ?
(6 times longer that Rudy's incessant use of 9/11!)
It has come to be his all-purpose entitlement and excuse for his failures in judgment, brains, and temperment.

As for wisdom about popularity contests, they are predicated on media pimping and fluffing their "favorites", which is then held to be "voter wisdom" since the sources of all negative stories impacting Obama and McCain's popularity are well spiked and bottled up by media.

1. McCain is hated by not just the Right, but by Centrist Senators that have seen his treachery up close. "Straight talk" is just his PR. Any study shows McCain all over the map on issues.

2. He doesn't care if he pisses people off that counted on his support only to get backstabbed. Not because of some high integrity - but from a belief that he is owed what he wants as payment for his Victimhood.

3. McCain would be the first to say that the woman's husband's fight with terminal cancer means little compared to his greater moral authority for being a POW.

Posted by chris ford | January 22, 2008 8:56 PM

McCain is the Republican Lieberman.

Speaking of McCain's economic empathy, remember McCain's famous $50/hour offer to pick lettuce from 2006?
______________________________________

via Tom Tomorrow http://thismodernworld.com/2811

Sen. John McCain threatened on Tuesday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his statements on organized labor and the
Iraq war.

“If you like, I will leave,” McCain told the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.
. . .
Later, the senator outlined his position on the Senate immigration debate, saying tougher border enforcement must be accompanied by guest-worker provisions that give illegal immigrants a legal path toward citizenship.

Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing. “Pay a decent wage!” one audience member shouted.

“I’ve heard that statement before,” McCain said before threatening to leave.
. . .
But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain’s job offer.

“I’ll take it!” one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. “You can’t do it, my friends.”

Some in the crowd said they didn’t appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

“I was impressed with his comedy routine and ability to tap dance without music. But I was impressed with nothing else about him,” said John Wasniewski of Milwaukee. “He’s supposed to be Mr. Straight Talk?”

Posted by Kent | January 22, 2008 10:11 PM

McCain may have a few problems on economic issues, but he still is better than robo-wonkette Hillary whose people-skills ain't there.

The ginormous Mighty Wurlitzer of the ultra-left will beat on McCain for his immigration stance, as will I.

But if it comes to a choice between J-Mac & Hillary, not a moment's hesitation.

However, I could think of voting for Obama for a while.....

Posted by daveinboca | January 22, 2008 10:42 PM

I hate all politicians. But I'd take Hillary over that hypocritical scum McCain any day.

Posted by Jimmy Carlton | January 22, 2008 11:43 PM

The "woman who needs to declare bankruptcy" is a loser, she should've had her mother-in-law call Ross Perot.

The Perot-McCain relationship goes back to McCain's five and a half years of captivity in Hanoi. When McCain's then-wife Carol was in a serious car accident, McCain's mother called Perot for help. "She asked me to send my people to Philadelphia to take care of the family," Perot says. Afterwards, McCain was grateful. "We loved him [Perot] for it," McCain told me in 2000.

Perot doesn't remember it that way. "After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona [Cindy McCain, his current wife] and the rest is history."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/94827

Posted by beowulf | January 23, 2008 2:29 AM

The "woman who needs to declare bankruptcy" is a loser, she should have had her mother-in-law call Ross Perot.

The Perot-McCain relationship goes back to McCain's five and a half years of captivity in Hanoi. When McCain's then-wife Carol was in a serious car accident, McCain's mother called Perot for help. "She asked me to send my people to Philadelphia to take care of the family," Perot says. Afterwards, McCain was grateful. "We loved him [Perot] for it," McCain told me in 2000.

Perot doesn't remember it that way. "After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona [Cindy McCain, his current wife] and the rest is history."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/94827

Posted by beowulf | January 23, 2008 2:30 AM

"Thank you. You've made my day. Go, recession!"

Nice to see that liberals have moved on from hoping for American defeat in Iraq to hoping for an American recession.

But don't question their patriotism.

Posted by madhadda | January 23, 2008 6:25 AM

Wow, I could not have said it better myself. McCain has made one blunder after another proving he is not in touch with the GOP much less America as a whole. McCain has one quality that makes him worthy of being president......his military exp.
For that we could just go get any General(that would be an EXPERT) out of the military to be president. BUT the military is only one slice of a presidential pie. In fact, I would say that it is one of the lesser important qualities since the president is not going to be out on the battlefield. He is going to depend on his military advisors to guide MAKE his policy. However, issues here at home....economics, illegal immigration, healthcare, soc sec, etc... (you know- all the things McCain has failed at in the Senate)will be at the presidents fingertips. So I ask: Do we want McCain to bring all the issues he failed with in the Senate & GOP opposed to the white house?

Posted by ashley | January 27, 2008 11:35 PM