1 CHAPTER 3: MCCAIN: OUT OF TOUCH/ TOO OLD In moments demanding presidential leadership, such as the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957, the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 9-11, or the financial meltdown of fall 2008, the temperament and character of the president are important predictors of performance. To prophesy that the competing suitor would prove unreliable in such trying times, each candidate in 2008 argued that the other was unconnected to basic American values. In an effort to undermine the Arizonan‘s credibility; the Democrats packaged ―McSame‖ as out of touch with what was going on in the economy and with resulting middle class concerns, while also whispering that he was also too old to be president. For those who had long admired McCain, this inference raised the possibility that the Republican nominee had once been but no longer was suited to that high office. If successful, this move rendered his past leadership on key issues and principled defiance of party admirable but irrelevant. Meanwhile, in a strategy that we will examine in the next chapter, the Republicans cast Obama as a profligate liberal who was not ready to lead, a notion they freighted with the implication that he was an unpatriotic radical who disdained basic American values. Just as ―out of touch‖ could be heard as no longer ready to president, and spoken with regret that the Arizonan had not won the 2000 race, in its benign form, ―not ready to lead‖ could be understood by those sympathetic to Obama, as ―not yet ready,‖ and as such an invitation to reserve their inclination to support the Illinois Senator for a future election. No serious student of politics doubts that the faltering economy and failed incumbent boosted the Democratic Party‘s presidential prospects in 2008. There were other pluses on the Obama-Biden balance sheet, as well. For a number of reasons, it was easier for the Illinois Democrat to establish that he was ―ready to lead‖ than for his colleague from Arizona to confirm 2 that he was ―in touch.‖ Where the culture is rich with tales of a neophyte proving adept, there are fewer accounts of a suspected dodderer revealing that he is instead wily and wise. And where Obama could mobilize Black votes to compensate for those lost to race-based reservations among Whites, there wasn‘t an under-energized constituency waiting to champion an elderly standard bearer. Moreover, ―age‖ stereotypes offered a grid into which any fumble by the 72-year-old McCain could be fit. If, for example, both candidates tripped over words in a late afternoon speech, mental decline might well come to the fore as an explanation for his lapse, where for the younger candidate the presumed explanation would be inadvertence or fatigue.1 Here we focus on contentions offered by the Democrats that the Republican standard bearer was ―out of touch‖ and the whispers that he was also too old. At the conclusion of this chapter we will ask, how, if at all, did perceptions that McCain was too old and Obama too young to be president change across the election? What sorts of voters perceived McCain‘s age to be a problem? How did media reinforcement affect perception that the Republican nominee‘s age was a liability? And how did his age affect voters‘ perception that McCain shared their values? The question unresolved by past presidential campaigns was not whether a novice could establish preparedness for the nation‘s highest office but whether the presidential bid of the son of a black father and white mother who was ―black enough to have trouble catching a cab in New 1So for example, when President Obama stumbled verbally during his July 8 2009 visit to Moscow, the New York Times attributed the fumbles to his being ―tired.‖ (Peter Baker, ―Family Night for Obamas Miffs Some in Moscow,‖ New York Times, 8 July 2009, A10). ―Mr. Obama has seemed tired here, several times fumbling the pronunciation of Mr. Medvedev‘s name and Mr. Putin‘s title. Beginning a speech here, he mistakenly said he first met his wife in school instead of at the law firm where they actually met. And he misstated his young daughter‘s age.‖ 3 York City‖2 would be helped or hurt by his multiracial identity, ―rooted,‖ as he put it, ―in the African-American community but not limited to it.‖3 After devoting this and the next chapter to the give-and-take about age and race that lurked beneath the allegations that one candidate was out of touch and the other unready, at the end of the next chapter, we will return to the larger question ―How, if at all, did Obama‘s race affect the election‘s outcome?‖ Out of Touch The language in which Senator Obama cast his bid was as serviceable against his primary season nemeses as against his general election opponent. ―America is ready to turn the page…This is our time. A new generation is prepared to lead,‖4 the Illinois Senator said in late 2006. Throughout his showdown with New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Illinois Democrat made three arguments easily retooled against McCain: ―This election is about the past versus the future‖5 and a referendum on ―the same old Washington politics‖6 not a return to ―the same fights that we had in the 1990s.‖7 Each of these themes suggested that Obama was the the antithesis of both McCain and Bush. After besting Senator Hillary Clinton‘s argument from experience in the primaries by contrasting her vote to authorize the use of military force against Iraq with his own opposition, a tactic that set his judgment against her experience, the Democrat from Illinois adopted a move Clinton had pressed against him in the Pennsylvania primary to make the case that McCain was ―out of touch.‖ In the Pennsylvania primary, the former first lady had revived her prospects by 2 ―Tavis Smiley Show 9:00AM EST,‖ NPR, 29 March 2004. 3 Mark Leibovich, ―The Man of the Hour; Barack Obama is the Party‘s New Phenom,‖ Washington Post, 27 July 2004, C01. 4 Dan Balz, ―Obama takes first steps in N.H.‖ Washington Post, 11 December 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000167.html 5 Obama for America, ―Future‖ (OH, LA, MS, NM, RI, VT) 27 February 2008. 6Obama for America, ―Represent‖ 15 April 2008. 7Obama for America, ―America is Listening TX‖ 29 February 2008. 4 attaching that label to the front runner‘s suggestion at a closed door San Francisco fundraiser that in difficult times those in small towns ―cling to guns or religion…as a way to explain their frustrations.‖8 In one of the New York Senator‘s ads, for example, a young African American woman responded to Obama‘s ill-advised statement by saying, ―I was very insulted by Barack Obama. It just shows how out of touch Barack Obama is (emphasis added).‖9 Where Clinton portrayed her opponent as a patronizing elitist disposed to derogate the beliefs of religious adherents and gun owners, the Obama send-up of McCain10 hinted instead that the Republican was cocooned in his own wealth and callous to the suffering of others. Into those meanings, the Democrats also insinuated the implication that the Arizonan was caught in a time warp, set in his ways, and out of contact with reality. ―Things have changed in the last 26 years,‖ said the announcer in one Democratic ad. ―But McCain hasn‘t. He admits he still doesn‘t know how to use a computer. Can‘t send an e-mail. Still doesn‘t understand the economy… [A]fter one president who was out of touch, we can‘t afford more of the same.‖11 The Democrats also bundled the assumption that Republicans are the party of big business into an indictment of their rival. McCain supported ―200 billion in tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class,‖ announced one Obama ad. ―After one president who was out of touch, we just can‘t afford more of the same…‖12 Raising a question Democrats had posed since the days of FDR, another asked, ―Who‘s on your side?‖ Ads aired 8Barack Obama, Remarks in town hall style fundraiser in Ball State University, San Fransisco, California, 6 April 2008. 9Hillary Clinton for President, ―Pennsylvania‖ 14 April 2008. 10Obama for America, ―Same‖ 31 August 2008. 11 Obama for America initially aired ―Still‖ on September 12, 2008. Had the ad not aired at a time when news of the faltering economy was crowding out campaign coverage, it might have produced a backlash for as the McCain campaign quickly noted, the Senator‘s infrequent computer use was a byproduct of discomfort created by torture at the hands of his Hanoi captors. At the Annenberg debriefing, the Democrats noted that had they known that McCain‘s war injuries limited his ability to use a computer, they probably would have foregone the attack on his computer skills. 12 Obama for America ―Still‖ 12 September 2008. 5 both English and Spanish then chronicled ways in which McCain‘s policies hurt and Obama‘s helped the middle class.13 ―I don‘t know who Senator McCain is looking out for,‖ says a woman in one ad, ―but it‘s not us.‖14 Another pictured Bush at McCain‘s side as the announcer reported of the Republican nominee, ―He‘s out of ideas. Out of touch and running out of time…with no plan to lift our economy up.‖15 History At 72 and 47, both McCain and Obama were well above the minimum age the Constitution sets for election to the presidency.16 However, where a handful of presidents younger than Obama had been elected (e.g., Teddy Roosevelt at 42, Kennedy at 43, Grant and Clinton at 46) with some of those well regarded by history, McCain would have been the oldest individual ever inaugurated to a first term.17 As a result comparisons to Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton helped Obama; by contrast, McCain had little to gain by arguing from the successes of the Reagan administration that age was no barrier to presidential accomplishment.