The Reverse Clark

by dday

John McCain’s campaign had to distance himself significantly from Phil Gramm this week, even suggesting that they’re no longer on speaking terms.

GERSH: Is Senator Gramm still giving advice to Senator McCain?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: No.

GERSH: No.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: At — I haven’t spoken to Senator Gramm since the comments took place, and I’m not expecting to.

This is despite the fact that among conservative movement types, Gramm’s comments are seen as largely correct. Some are defending them on technical grounds, claiming that the country hasn’t technically slipped into recession based on a narrow set of economic growth statistics that are not completely connected to middle class Americans’ lives. Others, like George Will, simply agree that Americans “are the crybabies of the western world.” They believe this and have always believed it. It’s part of their core “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” DNA, unless you’re a corporation drowning in subsidies and welfare payments, that is.

Traditional media outlets have finally picked up on the fact that the Gramm comments and McCain’s cluelessness on Social Security and health care led to a pathetically bad week, despite it being the week where the campaign message would be reset and more tightly focused. And hardcore conservatives are seeing McCain’s “gaffes” resulting from their core beliefs, and his distancing from them as a repudiation of economic conservatism. They don’t trust him already and this makes it worse.

Of course, Gramm helped shape McCain’s policies, and on the overwhelming majority of domestic issues McCain is exactly in line with the President. In fact, today a surrogate couldn’t name one difference between McCain and Bush on economic policy. But a significant segment of the conservative base sees Gramm as fundamentally correct and brave, and they see his ouster as a betrayal. This Weekly Standard piece from before the Gramm comments show that conservatives just don’t trust the guy.

This is McCain being McCain. He clearly believes that bipartisanship is among the highest virtues of political life. But it also reflects the campaign’s strategic attempt to position McCain as a centrist in order to win the votes of independents and even some Democrats.

There are risks to this strategy and the enthusiasm gap is chief among them. A Washington Post/ABC News poll last month found that nearly half of the liberals surveyed are enthusiastic about supporting Barack Obama, while only 13 percent of conservatives are enthusiastic about McCain. More generally, 91 percent of self-identified Obama supporters are “enthusiastic” about their candidate; 54 percent say they are “very enthusiastic.” Seventy-three percent of such McCain supporters say they are “enthusiastic” about his candidacy, but only 17 percent say they are “very enthusiastic.” […]

It is not surprising that conservatives are not warming to a candidate who likes to talk about climate change and government subsidies for displaced workers. But this coldness is increasingly alarming to some McCain backers. They believe that all of McCain’s efforts to win over Democrats and independents can only pay off if he is able to get conservatives to turn out to vote for him in November.

Just so we’re aware that this “move to the center” thing cuts both ways.

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