Just after we went to press with my cover story in today's CQ Weekly, about how John McCain and Barack Obama will compete for independent voters, McCain had a "virtual town hall" meeting on Saturday that was billed as a pitch to the independents. It sounded like a perfect example of the outreach efforts, just a little bit past my deadline.
Instead, the town hall meeting, and a rapid-response conference call organized by the Obama campaign, turned out to be examples of how some events for "independent" voters sound about the same as the campaign's pitches to everyone else.
When the McCain campaign announced its event, the advisory called it "a virtual town hall with Democrats and Independents this Saturday to discuss McCain's record of putting country before political party." The telephone callers were mostly Democratic primary voters from Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania who were selected through the campaign's "Citizens for McCain" effort, headed by Independent senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, according to spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan.
McCain did give some of his "above party" talk, as advertised. He made heavy use of the word "reform," and cited his work with Democratic senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota - as well as Lieberman.
"We've got to reform the way we do business in Washington. Look at the view of the American people about us. Look at the way that we continue to be gridlocked and seem to put party first. We've got to start putting our country first," McCain said.
But actually, McCain spent much of his time on another mission: reaching out to former supporters of Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
"I think it was probably unthinkable a generation ago that a woman could compete in the way that Senator Clinton has," he said. He also drew applause with this promise: "At the end of my first term, you will see a dramatic increase of women in every part of the government of my administration."
And when McCain addressed other issues, they sounded pretty much like his standard pitch to other audiences. When one woman asked what solutions he had to offer for the working poor, McCain promptly offered to keep her taxes low ("I think the worst thing we could do is raise your taxes right now"), advertised his plan for health care tax credits, and promised to strive for energy independence.
Obama's campaign, meanwhile, lined up two former Clinton supporters - Michigan's Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida - to "discuss the choice for Independent voters." Actually, the call was mostly about highlighting McCain's record on issues important to women - such as his support for restrictions on abortion and his opposition to legislation cracking down on wage discrimination - and trying to wave off any women who might be tempted to support McCain over Obama.
Truth be told, it sounded a lot like the talking points for, say, a Democratic audience. So what was the tie-in to independent voters? Just trying to make sure they didn't get the wrong impression about McCain, said Granholm.
"It's especially important because I think a lot of independents and moderate Republicans and pro-choice Republicans may not be aware of Senator McCain's strong anti-choice, anti-privacy, anti-reproductive freedom history and freedom, which he has bragged about," she said.
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