Bush, Run a Smarter Race

The campaign team of Texas Gov. George W. Bush needs to have someone write on the blackboard in its war room, “It’s the campaign, stupid!” After its humiliation in New Hampshire, fellow Texan Sen. Phil Gramm explained, “Texans never do well in New Hampshire, because we don’t grovel well.” In 1996, Gramm received a whopping 752 votes in the Granite State, so he may be right. Over the last year, Bush and his people have become so accustomed to the Republican establishment and financial fat cats traveling to Austin and groveling that they must have forgotten it’s a candidate’s job to go out and sell himself to the voters by talking about issues and character.

So far, Arizona Sen. John McCain is the better candidate and has run the smarter campaign. His people are passionate, and his campaign is turning on voters and making them interested in the process.

In contrast, the Bush campaign must be taking stupid pills. Whoever gave them the brilliant idea of attacking McCain in South Carolina, with its huge retired military community, for not being supportive on veterans’ issues should be fired. First, the facts are not right, as President George Bush’s assistant secretary of veteran affairs pointed out. Second, the campaign violated the first rule of politics: “Never fight the battle on your opponent’s turf.” This idiotic attack allowed real Vietnam veterans, who support the real war hero in this race, to remind voters that George W. was protecting the Rio Grande River and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders by flying for the Texas National Guard while McCain was rotting in a POW camp after being shot down in the real war.

If that attack wasn’t enough, the Bush campaign fired another stupid salvo. It marched out former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, now one of Washington’s biggest lobbyists and a Bush supporter, to attack McCain for being supported by Washington lobbyists. The problem is that Bush has received five times more money from Washington lobbyists than McCain.

Bush is now responding to McCain’s issues. His new slogan, “A reformer who gets results,” is taking on McCain’s greatest issue, reforming the system. Bush may argue he is the outsider, but it rings false. Voters are never going to mistake which of these guys is the outside maverick and which represents the establishment.

Just as the man I worked for, Ronald Reagan, was still viewed as a political outsider after eight years as California governor and eight years as president, McCain will never play the game the way the establishment wants him to. What Bush and all his supporters don’t understand is that being an outsider is not about where you live, but what you believe. To turn this around, Bush must show his supporters he’s a fighter. He has to respect McCain and differ with him on the issues. He has to win South Carolina and the primaries that follow, and he must show he also is a leader with character.

I confess to being a McCain fan. He’s an old friend. I’ve always admired his courage, even when I have disagreed with him on issues. Having confessed my biases, I still feel Bush has to be viewed as the favorite for the GOP nomination. But he must go out and convince voters he wants it. He has to connect with them and talk about himself and his plans. He must forget McCain and sell himself.

If he keeps running a stupid race, and McCain keeps connecting with voters, this thing will become a donnybrook. McCain must win South Carolina and California to have a chance, but his stellar campaign, and the Bush team’s arrogance, may allow it to happen. McCain must also convince voters that his campaign’s for real and he’s in this to the finish. With Steve Forbes out of the race, it’s now a head-to-head contest.