McCain Casts Himself As The "Common Sense Conservative"

Soft-launching his 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) cast himself Thursday as the candidate who would restore “common sense conservatism” to the Republican Party and said Republicans could win back their Congressional majorities in 2008 by running on a platform of reform and limited government. And he insisted that the country could not take a “holiday from history” by shirking its responsibility to fight terrorists and stabilize Iraq.

In a heavily promoted, tightly crafted speech to an elite group of conservatives in Washington, McCain said Republicans lost elections last week because they placed "incumbency over our principles" and that Americans expected a government with integrity. He suggested the blame lay with the Republican Congress, though he did not distinguish between their conservatism and President Bush's. He did not refer to Bush during the speech.

Speaking of the party's future, McCain rejected and party litmus tests, calling instead for a “genuine contest of ideas” within the GOP to meet the challenges the country faces.

At the same time, he said that Americans properly rely on tradition and deeply-held values to guide them in their political choices. Balancing the two approaches, McCain said, would require a new “common sense conservatism.”

“To keep our nation prosperous, strong and growing we have to rethink, reform and reinvent: the way we educate our children; train our workers; deliver health care services; support retirees; fuel our transportation network; stimulate research and development; and harness new technologies,” McCain said. “Let that challenge be the new Republican calling.”

But Iraq remains the most potent challenge facing the country, as McCain acknowledged. An early supporter of the war and an early critic of Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, McCain has urged President Bush to dispatch additional troops to Iraq as part of a last-ditch effort to secure the country. Thursday night, he said that “without additional combat forces, we will not win this war.”

That position does not resonate within the Republican caucus, and it brings him to the right of many of his potential presidential rivals, including Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA).

McCain’s advisers recognize that independents, a must-win general election consistency for him, voted in 2006 part to vent their frustration at the Bush Administration’s approach and at the unflagging optimism displayed by officials like Rumsfeld. Over the next few months, McCain hopes voters will associate him with the goals of the administration’s approach, rather than the “great many mistakes” he admits were made.

“History will hold us to account for them just as the voters did last week,” McCain said. But he added, “the situation in Iraq is dire. But I believe victory is still attainable. And I am certain that our defeat there would be a catastrophe, and not only for the United States.”

“It is not fair or easy to look a soldier in the eye and tell him he must shoulder a rifle again and risk his life in a third tour in Iraq,” he said. Only if America had the will to win, he said, would it not be "immoral." [MARC AMBINDER]

McCain used the majority of his speech to sketch out the domestic policies he’d pursue as president. He mentioned Republican standards like a line item veto, school choice and investments in technology. But he also said that the Republican Party should "say to that worker in Michigan, and thousands like him: when you work hard; play by the rules, serve your country and community; and the burden of change arrives suddenly on your doorstep, you and your family are not just forgotten or disposable."

McCain said conservatives like him believe in “in the rule of law and equal justice under the law, victim’s rights and taxpayers’ rights” as well as in “ judges who interpret the Constitution and don’t usurp, by legislating from the bench, the public’s right to elect representatives to write our laws.” Also: “work, faith, service’ and “a culture of life,” which is a Catholic phrase associated with opposition to abortion.

McCain labeled a “basic truth” the idea that “unlimited government confers unlimited power on its leaders to impose their will on others.” He added that “People generally don’t want to live their lives in the crosshairs of government oppression”

Advisers said the speech was intended for several audiences, including conservatives, independents, and the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Clinton. The phrase :”common sense conservatism” neatly turns on the “common good” liberalism McCain associates with Clinton, whose 1996 book on raising children was entitled “It Takes A Village.”

McCain has spent the past two years recruiting donors, state legislators, conservatives, county sheriffs and state party officials. Over the next several months, he will unfurl the juicer fruits of his labors, including the endorsements of several prominent Republican governors. He will travel to Iraq. At home, he will give a series of speeches on domestic issues, including his plans for combating global warming and for education reform.

His advisers concede that McCain may never convince doubting conservatives that he is their best candidate, ideologically. But they hope to convince enough of them that McCain’s nomination is inevitable and that he is the only Republican who could defeat a Democrat like Clinton in 2006. His general election viability will be a major theme of his primary race, as will his contrasts with Sen. Clinton and other Democrats. McCain’s criticism of Clinton last month on North Korea and defense policy won him plaudits from critics. Likewise, when McCain interrupted his campaign schedule to blast Sen. John Kerry for his ill-timed joke about education, McCain’s rebuttals appeared on all three network evening news casts that evening.