In his interview with Bill O’Reilly on FoxNews Channel last night, Sen. John McCain, right out the box, let loose the two charges he plans to hit Sen. Barack Obama hard with, ‘inexperience’ and ‘judgment.’
It really wasn’t anything different than what McCain, the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee, has said before about Obama.
It’s significance is mainly in the fact that there’s no message shift; it appears fixed. Polling has shown that Obama’s relative inexperience in national politics is what most troubles many voters, particularly independents.
“What’s his main weakness?” O’Reilly asked.
“Inexperience. I think inexperience and a lack of judgment and a record that shows that,” McCain said.
His evidence? Obama’s statement that he would sit down to talk with U.S. adversaries, including Mahmoud Ahmadenijad, Iran’s president, and Obama’s tax proposals, which, McCain charged, would raise taxes on 100 million Americans who pay capital-gains taxes.
A few minutes later, when he repeated what he thought Obama’s main weaknesses to be, McCain through in “and vision” almost as an afterthought. He didn’t have a chance to elaborate.
This last one may be the toughest for McCain to make stick. The “vision thing” is actually one of Obama’s greatest strengths. He envisions a nation where his leadership, coupled grassroots pressure, gets Washington beyond the partisan logjam in order to address the country’s numerous domestic and foreign problems. It may be idealistic. But it’s certainly is a vision.
