For McCain, it’s ‘Who do you trust?’

Democratic and Republican strategists agree this year’s presidential election will come down to trust, and GOP strategists say that by casting doubts on his rival’s readiness and experience, John McCain can win the White House this fall.

With less than 100 days to go before Election Day, Republican strategists say that despite the toxic political environment, the Arizona senator is doing well in the polls. They also note that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), whom they acknowledge is a charismatic and compelling candidate, has consistently failed to break the 50 percent mark.

{mosads}For McCain to surpass Obama down the stretch, GOP strategists said, the McCain camp has to find ways to fan the flames of distrust and uncertainty that continue to surround Obama.

Republican strategist Ron Christie said McCain needs to “hammer” Obama daily on issues that raise those concerns and repeatedly criticize the Democratic candidate on how sincere he is when it comes to the economy and national security.

Christie said McCain’s campaign needs to find a way always to be asking voters about Obama, “Is this the man that you want to hand over the keys to the country at both an economically challenging time and at a time of war?”

He noted that McCain can find room to move by raising questions about Obama’s commitment to the troops or his core beliefs moving forward in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“These character issues will help define where Sen. McCain is likely to find traction in the last 99 days or so,” Christie said.

One way to draw Obama out on those issues is to again and again press the Illinois senator on the proposed town hall meetings, an arena that “plays to Sen. McCain’s strengths” and gives him an open forum to present himself as the steady, experienced and better-known quantity.

Christie said McCain has to make the overall narrative of the race: “Who do you trust?”

“I don’t see any other way forward,” Christie said. “That has to be it.”

{mospagebreak}Doug Heye, another Republican strategist, said the use of that strategy will be evident from hearing the McCain campaign using words like “tested,” “ready” and — when it comes to Obama — “risk.”

Heye said that Obama is a compelling figure to many swing voters, but McCain can take advantage of the lingering uncertainty those voters feel and exploit it as the big day gets closer.

“They think that he might be a risk,” Heye said of Obama. “They like him and they want to vote for him, but there’s something in the back of their minds that makes them think twice.”

{mosads}At least one Republican strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said McCain could damage himself irreparably if he pushes the trust issue too far and looks more like a typical politician than the maverick of 2000. Too much negative advertising or any transparent attempts to portray Obama as unpatriotic could well backfire, the strategist said, because they are “diminishing the brand that was John McCain.”

“The reason why a lot of voters who are not traditional Republicans have supported McCain in the past, particularly among independents, is because he was someone who was viewed as above politics,” the strategist said.

But a shift in perception may already have happened, the strategist said, noting that the McCain campaigns of 2000 and 2008 are “night and day.”

“Every profile from 2000 referred to him as the happy warrior,” the strategist said. “Now the campaign is very dark and misanthropic.”

Therefore, the alternative to questioning Obama’s love of country or respect for the troops is to trust voters to decide whether they believe in the Illinois senator and then position McCain as “a safe place to land for voters disaffected by Obama.”

“Obama will pass or fail the leadership test on his own,” the strategist said. “What the McCain campaign can do is position themselves to capture votes as they peel off from Obama.”

The way to do that is for McCain to continue to push his commitment to reform, the strategist said, because for McCain to be a viable alternative to Obama in a change election, the Arizona senator has to be able to satisfy voters’ demand for change.

Heye, however, said he thinks the trust issue is fair game because “it speaks to what is the very essence of the job.”

“I think it’s absolutely fair here,” Heye said. “It’s a question that voters are going to be asking themselves.”

Dan Schnur, McCain’s communications director in 2000 and the new director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California, said trust is absolutely on the table, but the campaign has to be very careful about how they approach it.

“The debate inside the campaign should not be whether to talk about trust but how to talk about it,” Schnur said. “As long as he talks about trust in the context of particular policy matters, he’ll probably be all right. When it gets more personal, that’s when you get into trouble.” 

This is part two of a two part series.  For the first part, "For Obama, 'It's the trust, stupid'", please click here .