How can John McCain still win?

Senior Republican figures are divided about how to relaunch John McCain's faltering election campaign. Some think that he should continue attacking Barack Obama. Others believe a more positive approach is now called for
John McCain
Some Republicans believe John McCain should adopt a more positive approach to campaiging. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Bill Kristol
Conservative columnist

What McCain needs to do is junk the whole thing and start over. Shut down the rapid responses, stop putting up new TV and internet ads every minute. In fact, pull all the ads - they're doing no good. Use that money for televised town halls and half-hour addresses in prime time. And let McCain go back to what he's been good at in the past - running as a cheerful, open and accessible candidate. Sarah Palin should follow suit. They're happy warriors and good campaigners. Set them free.

William Murchison
Conservative columnist

He might still win. And then again, he might not. What matters is that Captain John McCain has chosen not to strike his colours. There is enormous potential significance in McCain's attempt to rise from the inanity and waste of the weeks since the Republican convention. How do we know he is making the attempt? We can't know anything in this crazy year. He knows he's about to get plow-cleaned the way things are going. It's his last hope, to be seen leading at a time of stress.

Karl Rove
Former White House aide

McCain is shaping a storyline that draws on well-founded concerns about Obama's lack of experience. He is also bowing to reality and devoting most of his time to the economy. He's the conservative reformer who'll lead and work hard to get things done, while Obama is the tax-and-spend liberal who's unprepared to lead and unwilling to act. He's criticising Obama for lingering on the sidelines while he dove in to help pass a rescue plan that was necessary, no matter how distasteful.

Gary Bauer
Neoconservative leader

The left claims racism as the only possible source of opposition to Obama because it refuses to admit that Obama's extreme liberalism would put off voters. Accordingly, it portrays any criticism of his determination to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, or of his vacuous celebrity persona, as somehow racist. The McCain camp doesn't want to make the election about race, ethnicity or religion. Rather, it wants to make it about experience, principles and issues.

Tucker Carlson
Conservative TV pundit

The obvious question is: why not Jeremiah Wright? Wright indisputably was one of Obama's closest friends. Nobody in America needs to be reminded of who Wright is. As long as you've decided to go after Obama's character and associations, Wright seems like the obvious place to start. The 30-second attack ad essentially writes itself.

Sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times,, Washington Times, the Daily Beast