One Term McCain Would Be a Mistake
In today’s WSJ Peggy Noonan has an excellent piece on the current state of play in this election. I am a huge fan of Ms. Noonan’s columns; however, near the end of today’s piece she suggests that McCain should consider announcing that he will be only a one term President. She goes on to say that this will tell voters that he “means to have a clean, serious, one-term presidency in which he will do things those under pressure of re-election do not and cannot do”.
This is one of those ideas that, as my colleague Pete Ventimiglia says, “sounds great when you first hear it but after five minutes of poking holes in it sounds like a dud”. It is a dud. It would make McCain a lame duck–virtually a second term President. And every second term since FDR has been a disaster. After the first week of kudos what does McCain get out of it? Nothing. If people are not willing to vote for him under ordinary circumstances would this really change their mind? I don’t think so.
Voters don’t want a “way out” this year as Ms. Noonan suggests, they want a way forward. McCain wins by leading the way.
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