SEND TO A FRIEND

|

PRINT ARTICLE

|

Americans Want a Leader Who Transcends Party Lines

The polls on the presidential race have been gradually tightening as John McCain has closed what was a five- to six- point lead for Barack Obama last month and turned it into a 4 percent advantage, according to a Gal lup poll of likely voters. At the very least, the race is tightening and is now a statistical dead heat.

Why is that?

There are a number of reasons for this change, but mostly it has to do with what the electorate is looking for in a leader and the kind of policies Americans want to see their president pursue. Put simply, they are looking for bipartisan policies. To the extent that McCain has been advocating them while Obama has moved away from the bipartisan positioning of his successful primary campaign, Obama has suffered and McCain has benefited.

To be sure, for most pollsters, the tightening of the race has come as a surprise. With 76 percent of the electorate saying that they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States, the expectation was that Obama would have quite an edge. Indeed, in similar circumstances in 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis had an 18 percent lead at this point over Vice President George H.W. Bush, the eventual winner.

McCain has closed the gap in part because he has started to emerge as the post-partisan leader that the American people are looking for. This is a change election to be sure, but the question is, what kind of change do people want?

My examination of poll data, as well as real-world events, shows that voters are desperate for a leader who will move past the traditional divide to find fresh, workable solutions to the many problems facing our nation.

And on many issues facing the nation, from immigration and tor ture to climate change and campaign finance reform, McCain has been able to find a moderate, bipartisan path that a large percentage of the American people seem to want. Obama very much offered this approach during the primary season and benefited from it. To turn his campaign around in the near term, he needs to go back to that approach and focus on the economy and emphasize how his policies would be very different from those that McCain and George Bush have advocated.

But to understand why McCain has been able to make slow but steady progress, it is useful to look at some of the issues facing the country.

Take energy. Over the last few months, the high price of gas has obviously hit voters hard. What Obama needs to do is a better job recognizing that people desire alternative solutions that go beyond the well-worn policies that he has been advocating. He has talked of tweeking his position on offshore drilling -- that's a start. But he also needs to explain why his calls for a greener America will result in reduced oil consumption and why his policies will result in lower prices at the pump, and soon.

To his credit, he's already pledged to increase our investment in renewable energy and raise the nation's fuel standards, and he has made clear that nuclear power will be part of any comprehensive energy proposals. These proposals certainly cut across party lines, and Obama has to take pains to emphasize to swing voters that he has staked out such territory.

Obama also must more systematically reassert his commitment to strengthening families. This means he needs to continue doing what he began in June, which is recon necting with people of faith on is sues like faith-based initiatives and encouraging families to stay intact, particularly black families. Now that the Rev. Wright affair is behind him, Obama must also reach out to members of the evangelical community to reassure them and emphasize that he stands with them on a large number of cultural issues that they care about.

One of Obama's more successful events was on Father's Day in Chicago.

Accompanied by his wife and two daughters, Obama admonished the many black men who "don't realize that responsibility does not end at conception that they have ongoing obligations that they cannot ignore." This is the kind of issue that McCain can't touch, and when Obama talks about it, values voters, both black and white, are inspired and move in his direction.

And then there's education. Despite the wishes of his party's grassroots activists and the nation's largest teachers union, Obama is committed to merit pay for teachers and standards in the schools. These positions are likely to resonate well with soccer moms and those who have been scared away from Obama by concerns about his liberal Senate voting record.

On health care, both McCain and Obama have demonstrated a remarkable willingness to break from traditional party positions. Obama has pledged to offer a national health plan under which people can purchase reasonably priced coverage, and McCain has promised to open up the insurance market so that people can buy insurance wherever it's most affordable.

But on this issue, Obama can do more to demonstrate that he's able to move past the political divides that wear voters out and lead them to tune out politicians. That's why he should emphasize innova tion as well as accessibility. Over the last few years, the U.S. biotech nology industry has developed revolutionary treatments for cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other conditions. Cures for these diseases are just around the corner -- and just about everyone has a friend, family or other loved one suffering from a terrible condition.

The recent polling shows the notion that there is an inexorable move to the Democrats in the presidential election is clearly an exaggeration. Voters are now rewarding McCain for a level of bipartisanship that benefited Obama earlier in the year. Voters are looking for shared solutions, and if Obama is able to return to his message of the primary and make the case that the narrow partisan policies that George Bush has championed and McCain has routinely supported have hurt America, he will regain the lead that he once had.

---

Facebook

|

Email

|

Print

|

---

Related Topics: election 2008 |

Sponsored Links