With an eye on independent voters who could decide the fall election, Sen. John McCain delivered a sweeping speech yesterday in the crucial state of Ohio portraying his first term in the White House as a departure from the Bush administration on issues from foreign policy to how he will deal with the Congress and the news media.
But McCain also outlined a conservative domestic vision of reducing taxes, improving public education through competition with private and charter schools, and attacking the energy crisis with "clean coal" and new nuclear plants.
McCain's comments, coming after a speech Monday in which he acknowledged climate change as a significant world problem, signaled an attempt to revive his image as a political maverick - key to appealing to the same independent voters that Democrats hope will help them win the White House.
At the same time, it put some distance between the Arizona senator from the Republican Party's conservative base, already at odds with McCain on such issues as immigration.
"It sent a message to the base that the `maverick' McCain is going to be the one running for president," said Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist unaligned in the current race. "And that just sends Rush Limbaugh and a lot of conservative activists right up the wall."
"If the maverick doesn't run, he's not going to win," Republican strategist Rob Stutzman said. "It's a change election. It has to be about the future. And he needs to give people hope that he can be a change agent."
For Merle Black, an analyst at Emory University, where McCain chose to speak was just as significant as what he said. Ohio is a swing state that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama lost in the primary to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. "The site of this speech emphasizes the critical importance of Ohio in McCain's general election strategy," Black said.
McCain also seemed to be pushing back against the Democrats' tactic of portraying his agenda as four more years of President Bush.
Framing his speech as a look back at the accomplishments of his first term, McCain said the Iraq war would be over and most of the troops home.
But he also envisioned an America with a larger military, restored international relations that end stalemates over nuclear weapons with North Korea and Iran, and membership in a new "League of Democracies" working to ease strife in Darfur.
