Aaron Keith Harris
2008-06-20 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

John McCain’s campaign blitz this week on the energy issue — which included calls for offshore oil drilling and the construction of nuclear reactors — is an early sign of life for a candidacy that Democrats will do their best to tar as merely a “third term” for President Bush.

If McCain gets in front of the energy issue — which will be tough with $4 to $5 gasoline — he may be able to portray Barack Obama as another Jimmy Carter.

But while each camp may try to compare the other to an unpopular president, the media could very easily cast this race as a replay of the 1992 contest between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

To this day my grandmother talks about how Bush glanced at his watch during a debate, which somehow signified that he was “out of touch” with ordinary Americans. I doubt she, or any other debate viewer, noticed the watch-glance at the time.

Instead, they remember the story line spun by the media, which also included the trumped-up incident that Bush supposedly didn’t know what a supermarket scanner was.

Bill Clinton was the earnest, young candidate with the gift of gab, a role Obama has already assumed.

McCain will have to work extra hard to make sure he isn’t cast as the grumpy old man in the media’s election drama. Especially since he is, in fact, a grumpy old man.

McCain’s first major television ad is not helping his cause much. It reminds everyone of his heroic service in Vietnam, but it does so in a drab, downbeat way that tells voters little to nothing about why he’s running or how he’ll govern.

Instead he needs to bombard voters with ads that feature actual policies in detail and play up his maverick image.

Obama may be playing the Clinton role in this election, but there’s nothing that suggests he has a mastery of specificity the way young Clinton had. If McCain goes just a little wonkish, he may be able to demonstrate just how unqualified Obama is to be president.

While McCain himself must show that he’s a competent maverick, he must be willing to let his proxies attack Obama whenever and wherever opportunity arises. McCain has already signaled his antipathy to such a strategy when he sanctimoniously blasted a conservative radio host and then-supporter for merely using the full name of Barack Hussein Obama.

But McCain must realize that there’s nothing unethical about attacking your opponent with the truth, especially when that opponent has built a huge store of goodwill simply by being more charming than Hillary Rodham Clinton.

McCain can also help or hurt himself, though not too much, with his choice of vice presidential candidate. Ex-presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Govs. Charlie Crist of Florida and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have all been mentioned as possibilities.

Any of them, especially Jindal, would signal that McCain is willing to listen to the party’s Reaganite base. Picking a liberal Republican, a Democrat or an independent is a bad enough idea that not even McCain would do it.

The best idea that McCain could heed, one that would jump-start his campaign like nothing else, would be to formulate and press an immigration policy that quickly closes the border. Save the debate over who gets to cross when and where for later, just promise to get a handle on things. That may be an idea too good for McCain to run with.

Aaron Keith Harris writes about politics, music and pop culture. He edits the music review blog The Lonesome Road Review (lonesomeroad

review.com).