McCain needs Gramm and Romney

There are two things McCain needs to do to get in shape for the general election: Bone up and sharpen his economic message, and win over the conservative base. Both tasks can be done if he does his homework and gets helps on a clear conservative economic message. Two messengers who can help him are Romney and Gramm. The buzz on the blogs is that something is shaking between Romney and McCain, and a Monday announcement or event may be in the offing. And Gramm has for some time been helping McCain win over conservatives.

There is energy, money, and passion behind Obama, yet the energy for Obama comes from a narrow slice of the electorate:
1. People too young to remember how bad a similar guy named Jimmy Carter was.
2. Liberal progressives, especially academic types.
3. Blacks

McCain’s got many lines of attack to hammer Obama:
- Obama is a left-liberal extremist
- Obama lacks experience to be CinC and has naive views on foreign policy
- McCain is judged the most ready to "answer the 3am phone call"
- Obama’s “patriotism gap” compared with McCain the war hero
- Obama’s tax hikes and spending spree will hurt the economy
- Obama is too anti-Israel and too soft on our enemies the Islamic jihadists

- On Iraq: Obama's position is out of touch with the success of the surge; nobody wants to lose a war and McCain can make the case that only he will win the war and bring the troops home with honor.

The real GOP weak spot is going to be the economy. We have prospect of near 0% growth and/or recession, and 2 out of 3 voters say the economy is going in the wrong direction. The Democrats will try an election like was done on 1992 grounds. The Democrats will make the economy the issue and run against McCain by tying him to a 'failed' Bush.

McCain needs to bone up to survive the attacks on those grounds. He will need to show not just that he is his own man, but have a clear and convincing vision on the economic future of this country. That vision of course must be grounded in conservative principles; his spending credentials are good, but he his tax cutting agenda will need to be convincingly sold. He needs Gramm and Romney and others helping him make the case. It may in fact suggest that there is a good case for putting Romney on the ticket with him.