Inside Politics Daily

McCain Begins 'Biography Tour'

Posted:
03/31/08
John McCainSen. John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, kicks off what aides are calling a "biography tour" today in Mississippi, at a Navy airfield named for his grandfather, Admiral John Sidney McCain. From there, McCain will make stops in Virginia, Maryland, Florida, and his home state of Arizona. The tour intends to trace the candidate's personal history, and introduce him to the national electorate.

McCain, who wrapped up the nomination early this month, is beginning to set his general election narrative, while his Democratic rivals continue their internecine battle for their party's nomination. He also looks to breakthrough intense media coverage of the Democratic contest. His recent trip abroad to Iraq, Israel, France, and England generated some free media exposure and good headlines, and spotlighted McCain's foreign policy credentials. Now he hopes to duplicate that effort domestically with speeches in places that were pivotal to his upbringing, explaining the events and praising the people who were important in shaping his views.

From McCain field in Mississippi, McCain will travel to suburban Washington, D.C., where he attended high school, and then continue on to Annapolis, Maryland, for a speech at the United States Naval Academy, from where McCain graduated in the bottom half of his class. From there the tour will move to Pensacola, Florida, where McCain was stationed before being deployed to Vietnam and where he returned after more than five years as a prisoner of war.

The campaign released a television ad to coincide with the start of the tour. The ad, titled "624787," is causing a little controversy because the last line of the ad refers to McCain as "The American president Americans have been waiting for." Some have interpreted that as a subtle swipe at Sen. Barack Obama meant to recall the various scandals surrounding his campaign from his ancestry to his former pastor's incendiary comments. The ad is running statewide in New Mexico, a swing state that President Bush carried by a small margin in 2004.

Securing the nomination relatively early has been both a blessing and a curse for the McCain campaign. It gives McCain the opportunity to raise money, define himself, and reach out to conservatives suspicious of his political leanings, all crucial elements to a McCain victory in November. However, it removes the campaign from the front pages and focuses the candidate's attention on tasks he is admittedly not very good at, like fund raising. The foreign trip was successful in that it allowed McCain to appear presidential while his rivals were battling each other. If this domestic trip is to be as successful, and generate some positive press coverage for the campaign, McCain will have to make news by revealing aspects of himself that the public does not already know.

Mark Impomeni

Mark Impomeni is not a journalist, or a pundit, but a citizen with a keen interest in national issues. Skeptical and argumentative...more

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