FIRST THOUGHTS: THAT '70S SHOW - McCain Redux

[BridgeTheGap]

From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** That ‘70s Show: It’s time to dust off those Foghat and Alice Cooper albums, bust out those “Saturday Night Fever” dance moves, and fire up that “Dazed and Confused” DVD because we’re … headed back to the 1970s. Yesterday, in his interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, McCain said: “Sen. Obama says that I'm running for a Bush's third term. It seems to me he's running for Jimmy Carter's second.” Later in the interview, the Arizona senator added, “I think this -- election is about change, Brian. I … think it's the right kind of change versus the wrong kind of change. Sen. Obama wants to dust off the old big government, high taxes ideas of the 60s and 70s that failed then.” Does McCain’s Carter/70s attack work? On the plus side, it’s a nice counterpunch to the McCain-equals-Bush attack the Dems have using for the past three months. Also, it’s bound to help with older voters, who certainly remember all the problems associated with the ‘70s (stagflation, oil shortages, hostage crisis). And as GOP commentator Jennifer Rubin notes, it might be persuasive with some Jewish voters. But just how many people remember a presidency that ended nearly 30 years ago? Indeed, not a single person under 50 was eligible to vote when Carter was elected to the White House. What’s more, the attack might play into Obama’s post-partisan argument that Americans want to move beyond the debates of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Obama himself was 19 years old when Carter left office. Still, it does give McCain a quick description for helping voters visualize a President Obama. Obama already has his word, "Bush"; McCain needs his. And while McCain may get clobbered among voters under 40, if he over-performs among voters over 60, he can offset those losses. Do remember, of course, that the Carter hammer was attempted in ‘92 against Bill Clinton who, arguably, had even more superficially in common with the ex-peanut farmer -- an unknown southern governor from a small state…

*** What does that mean about Bush? Lost in McCain's attack is the subtle admittance that Bush has become the Republican's Carter. While Democrats have accepted the fact Carter was a mediocre-to-bad president, have rank-and-file Republicans had their own come to Jesus on Dubya? Are they ready to accept that he'll go down in history as their Carter? That's the risk in McCain's attack on Obama: It works on one level, but if he chooses not to defend Bush's presidency and allows it to be painted as a failed presidency, will the base be comfortable with that?

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/10/1127370.aspx