With all respect, I don’t think this — “Obama is not some wild-eyed radical. He’s a normal Chicago politician. That’s the problem.” — is a fair take at all. How can anyone who actually follows this stuff, who reads Freddoso, Kurtz, and scores of other reliable sources of information, conclude that Obama is not some wild-eyed radical? I don’t need to make the case here, as it has been made in many other places. Moreover, how does portraying Obama as a political hack, which he is, move the ball? We should run against the Daley Machine? How many voters care about that? That doesn’t engender passion but rather a yawn. There are number of things McCain can and should do, but to unilaterally disarm on the Ayers connection would be senseless.
And by the way, McCain has been running on “the middle class” and now finds himself in a bidding war with Obama. His $300 billion mortgage plan, such as it is, was aimed at the middle class. This focus needs a lot more intellectual work lest it winds up giving away the store. Both in theory and, so far, articulation, it has the smell of class-warfare. Yes, we need to appeal to the vast majority of the population. But, no, we need not engage in the language of the Left. There are certain principles and beliefs, which can and should undergird practical policy initiatives, which benefit most if not all of society and need not be categorized in terms of class structures.