‘Hurricane Mccain’ Makes Waves
Big, Bad John. Hurricane McCain. Everybody’s afraid of him. The Republicans, the Democrats, the fat cats, even his dog. He’s got a temper, you know.
Politicians hate uncertainty and they didn’t count on The Hurricane. Assumptions that seemed sturdy before New Hampshire have been blown away. The rules are in ruins.
The panic in Republican ranks is tangible. So many insiders placed such big bets on George W. Bush that they are still in shock. Even if Bush survives and wins the nomination, McCain has exposed the governor’s soft spots and practically written the text for Democratic attacks in the fall: favors the wealthy, fails as a leader, etc.
But Democrats are almost as fearful. They’ve been planning all along to run against Bush and relishing it. Now, Hurricane McCain is swamping their calculations and in the latest CNN poll, the Arizona senator runs better against the Democrats than the Texas governor does. “Our guys are clearly worried,” says one Democratic insider. “Just when they thought Gore had righted himself, they have McCain to worry about.”
A female Democrat with close ties to Al Gore confesses: “I have a political crush on McCain. I just finished reading his book and it’s fascinating. There’s some real life drama there. And besides, I think the guy’s sort of cute.”
That comment reveals why McCain is so tough to rough up. His campaign is based more on the man than the message, more on his life than his ideas. What’s Bush (or the Democratic nominee) going to say, McCain really didn’t spend all that time in prison? He really isn’t that candid, charming guy you see on TV?
McCain still has a lot to prove. Remember Paul Tsongas, Gary Hart and Pat Buchanan - they all ripped through New Hampshire and then blew out to sea.
“It’s only one win,” said a Democratic strategist. “We don’t really know McCain’s political acumen or campaign skills yet.”
More to the point, McCain’s honeymoon won’t last. He does have a megaphone to speak to the country. But along with the megaphone comes the microscope.
The jokes and jibes that have amused reporters in the back of his campaign bus will now be dissected in detail. And voters will learn that the Hurricane can blow hot and cold, sanctimonious as well as sunny, angry as well as appealing.
Still, McCain is frightening his foes because he’s mastered the political version of jujitsu, a martial art where an opponent’s weight is turned against him. Look what happened in New York.
Bush and his ally, Gov. George Pataki, repeatedly insisted McCain should be kept off the ballot in a dozen congressional districts because he’d failed to fulfill conditions established by party barons. McCain turned his problem into a prize, a badge of honor. He’s probably sorry Bush and Pataki folded so fast.
Then, someone in the Bush camp had the brilliant idea of attacking McCain on his record toward veterans. What were those guys thinking? Let’s give The Hurricane another chance to remind voters that while he was wasting away in a North Vietnamese prison, George W. was downing a few brews with his buddies at the Deke house?
Bush’s latest tack is to deride McCain for being the chairman of a Senate committee. This proves, Bush says, that McCain is really an insider and a seedy one at that, because he takes contributions from lobbyists. But Bush also brags that 35 GOP Senators have backed him - a sure sign of his leadership qualities. How can the governor gouge McCain for being a member of the Senate club and then boast that the very same club is in his corner?
Democrats are concerned that McCain could bamboozle them in the same way. They were all primed for pummeling Bush as “a lightweight who’s not up to the job,” said one Gore adviser. “But McCain has none of that baggage.”
Speaking of baggage, McCain is in a good position to exploit the burden all Democrats have to carry - Bill Clinton’s “truth-twisting” tendencies, as the senator puts it. Concedes one Democratic strategist: “McCain’s message, that he speaks the truth regardless of the consequences, is very salient, frankly.”
Moreover, McCain has already threatened to beat Al Gore “like a drum” on the subject of campaign fund-raising abuses. “There’s going to be blood all over the place,” he boasts, and he means it. That’s why folks are afraid of The Hurricane.