Ask the typical Democratic consultant to describe John McCain, and you’ll almost certainly hear the same three words: “Bush’s third term.” McCain’s campaign is clearly aware of the problem, and has taken half-hearted steps to argue that the senator may agree with Bush on almost everything, but not literally everything.
Has McCain’s pushback been effective? It doesn’t look like it.
A recent USA Today/Gallup poll finds about two in three Americans concerned that John McCain would pursue policies as president that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued. Nearly half — 49% — say they are “very concerned” about this.
Indeed, an additional 19% identified themselves as “somewhat concerned” about McCain pursuing policies that are “too similar” to Bush’s agenda, for a combined 68% of Americans who aren’t entirely comfortable with the notion of McCain being an agent of much-needed change.
There’s an ideological gap here, but a wide swath of the country is nevertheless worried that McCain will simply be more of the same. Among self-indentified independents, 67% are concerned that McCain is too similar to Bush (47% are very concerned). Even among Republicans, 45% are concerned about McCain offering the country a third Bush term.
The Gallup report added, “Although McCain remains competitive in head-to-head matchups with Obama, the poll suggests that McCain may have more work to do to distance himself from Bush.”
That would be an easier task were it not for his record, and his admission, “[O]n the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I’ve been totally in agreement and support of President Bush.”
I’d add, by the way, that Gallup pushed its luck:
At this point, Americans seem more concerned about not getting enough change than about getting too much with the next president, which works to Obama’s benefit. But the campaign has barely begun and Republicans will do their best to make the case that Obama is too inexperienced and too liberal to be trusted (Obama had the highest liberal voting score of any senator in 2007, according to the National Journal’s annual report).
McCain does have enough disagreements with Bush to perhaps make the argument that he will not represent a third Bush term seem credible. At the same time, on the major issues such as the economy and Iraq, McCain’s and Bush’s positions are essentially the same.
Gallup’s right about McCain’s positions, but the National Journal “ranking” has already been exposed as ridiculous, over and over again.
The fact that it’s still used like this is not at all encouraging.