Changing teams in Midstream

Stuart Stevens, a Republican political consultant agrees with me:

This view of Bush transformed from Leader of the Free World into Election Jeremiah is so wrong that it should be laughable. Except that a lot of Republicans seem to believe it's true. They're certainly behaving that way on the campaign trail, acting as though they're sure that a spy camera photo of a candidate caught with the president will be a death sentence in November. And that's a problem -- not for the president but for the candidates and the GOP.

They've come this far with him, and I think it's cowardly and ultimately disastrous to dissociate themselves now.

Candidates need to worry less about Bush and more about their own agendas. The truth is that there is ample reason to believe that the president is well-liked among voters who might consider voting Republican. But the nation is fighting a tough and nasty war and there's little joy in the day-to-day slog of winning that war. Which makes it just like every other war the nation has waged.

My advice to Republican candidates is that they first must come to grips with the rationale for their own election: Why me? Why now? If in their hearts they disagree with the Iraq war, they should call it like they see it, but without trying to nuance a response seven ways from Sunday in hopes of pleasing all sides. That's French for ending up like John Kerry. Elections are littered with losers who have a need to be loved by everyone.

We're in a situation that calls for leadership, which means standing on principle. When have we ever had a war that was easy? And if people don't think terrorists are a serious problem, they haven't been paying attention. Candidates need to be told the hard truth, not pandered to. The case is there to be made, but you can't rely on press releases and pork. The former won't be published as written, and the latter is starting to become transparent as the little tricks for hiding who's adding all those earmarks and whom they're benefitting. You have to go to the people, and you have to do it effectively.