He not only pledged to have “most” American troops home from Iraq by 2013 (more on that later), but also laid out a litany of other sunny scenarios: “The Iraq War has been won. … The United States and its allies have made great progress in advancing nuclear security. … The size of the Army and Marine Corps has been significantly increased. … The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth. … Health care has become more accessible to more Americans than at any other time in history. … Obesity rates among the young and the disease they engender are stabilized and beginning to decline. … The United States is well on the way to independence from foreign sources of oil.”” (McCain’s new ad, ” 2013 ,” has a similar message.)
Skepticism was the first response, with one reporter calling McCain’s speech a “magic carpet ride.” But McCain knows what he’s up against. It’s official that 2008 is a “change election,” whatever that means, and Obama has patented his own brand of Optimism™. McCain can’t let himself get painted as the curmudgeon to Obama’s visionary. When Clinton mocked Obama’s highfalutin tone, it came off as crass and mean-spirited. In this general election, with GOP approval ratings at historic lows, the risk of getting pegged as the naysayer is even greater.
Hence the blindingly sunny forecast. “I cannot guarantee I will have achieved these things,” McCain said in the speech. But that’s not the point. No one actually expects complete success. It’s about setting the rhetorical tone. McCain is pre-emptively fending off charges of being the “can’t-do” candidate. But he has to spin it as his own positive agenda, without giving the impression he’s just trying to out-Obama Obama.
