Consistent message eluding McCain

Pragmatic pitch, fierce attack mix

John McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, campaigned in Virginia yesterday. The two are trying to keep the fervor of conservatives while reaching independent voters. (Stephen M. Katz/The Virginian-Pilot via Associated Press)

When the head of a local group representing families with Down syndrome rose at a town hall meeting outside Milwaukee on Thursday morning to ask Sarah Palin what she would do for those with the condition, Palin boasted that as governor she had increased spending on programs for children with disabilities and would do the same nationally.

From the same stage half an hour earlier, however, John McCain had appeared to rule out such a commitment, as he reiterated a pledge to restrain new spending on everything other than the military or veterans care. "We'll impose a spending freeze to stop the spending spree in Washington!" McCain had declared to applause.

McCain has struggled to settle on a consistent message as he enters the final month of the campaign with an unusual predicament before him: an enthused Republican base in his corner - but Democrats and independents whom he once included in his "McCain Majority" drifting from reach. One moment he is an eager vessel for the disenchantment of riled conservatives who fill his crowds. Minutes later he is making the case for bipartisan consensus and establishment mores.

Yesterday, after a week of pugnacious scrutiny of Democrat Barack Obama's relationships with a terrorist and convicted felon, McCain unveiled a new speech that did not deal with his opponent's character at all.

Instead, in two traditionally Republican states, he made a politically broad appeal, disparaging "the last eight years" under President Bush, emphasizing policy differences with Democrats, and recasting his own life experience for the crisis facing the country.

"What America needs in this hour is a fighter, someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people," he said, embracing the role of underdog ("The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes.")

"I know what fear feels like. It's a thief in the night who robs your strength," McCain added, a reference to his 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. "I know what hopelessness feels like. It's an enemy who defeats your will. I felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. I'm an American. And I choose to fight."

At a rally in Virginia Beach, Va., McCain and Palin recognized voters' "fear" and "anger," respectively, but steered the crowd away from directing those emotions at the opposition. This time, the chants of "No-bama!" responded to McCain's criticism of Democratic tax policy, not the dismissive description of a "Chicago politician" that was a fixture of last week's speeches.

"I've argued all year that the Republican Party is more pragmatic today than I've seen it in some time," said New Hampshire Republican Party chairman Fergus Cullen. "For the next month, it is very much about winning."

In Lakeville, Minn., on Friday, that sentiment spurred a dramatic intervention as rank-and-file Republicans rose in sequence imploring McCain to "fight" Obama in personal terms.

"The message from Republican voters to the McCain campaign is: You've got to get tough, take off the gloves and do what you need to do to inform the American people about this guy," said Bob Spindell, party chairman for a Milwaukee-area congressional district.

To that call, McCain again sent mixed messages.

Although he claimed that "I think I got my marching orders," McCain refused to embrace the most pointed attacks recommended by supporters. Voters should not be "scared" of Obama, McCain told them, despite the fact that such an emotional current had coursed through McCain's message. An ad released last week with the Republican National Committee called Obama "dangerous," at the same time the candidate's wife, Cindy, said that the Democrat's vote on war funding "sent a cold chill through my body."

At one point, McCain worked to reassure one questioner that he shared her commitment to beating Obama. "Believe me, I am motivated," McCain said. "I am convinced there are significant numbers of independent and undecided voters that we can win the election in this state of Minnesota."

The turn toward Obama's character had not helped McCain with independents in the ideologically moderate suburbs of southeastern Pennsylvania, where McCain plans to meet today with female voters, according to state Republican Party chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr.

"In the rest of Pennsylvania, it's a referendum on Obama and who he is," said Gleason. "In the southeast, suburban voters are not convinced. They're more issue-oriented and policy-driven."

Yet Republicans acknowledge that McCain's efforts to connect on economic policy have been muddied by an ideological incoherence that once served as his greatest strength in appealing to voters across party lines. Adviser Mark Salter said that McCain "has never been a wild-eyed deregulator at all. But none of us expected to be in a position where we're facing some kind of economic tsunami."

Last week, McCain found himself to the left of Obama and many conservative thinkers after proposing a $300 billion plan for the Treasury Department to purchase underwater mortgages from homeowners. The cost could extend a larger $700 billion rescue plan for the financial system that was supported by both McCain and Obama and has since become an object of voter rage for its high cost to taxpayers. The National Review magazine called McCain's mortgage plan a "gift to lenders who abandoned any sense of prudence during the boom years" that would create "a level of moral hazard that is unacceptable."

"A big part of the coming debate within the Republican Party is between small-government conservatives and big-government conservatives," said Cullen, noting that McCain has not fully identified with either faction.

"Obama has problems, too, about character. But McCain had a chance to be a maverick and draw a line in the sand, and he missed it when he voted for" the bailout, said Bruce Perlmutter, a retired small-business owner and independent from La Crosse, Wisc., who remains undecided after seeing both candidates campaign recently in his hometown. "That would have appealed to independents, but he caved."

Sasha Issenberg can be reached at sissenberg@globe.com.